Trump falsely accuses Canada of burning down White House

“As Bismarck said, if we explained to people the recipe for sausages, it’s not certain that they’d keep eating them”, Macron said, referring to the 19th century Prussian prince Otto von Bismarck when asked at a June 5 press conference to elucidate reports of a recent phone exchange with Trump described as “terrible” by sources.

Trudeau was angered Trump utilized the rarely invoked “national security” provision to justify the tariffs, and in doing so was alluding that Canada was a threat to USA national security.

“We Europeans and the Japanese are not ready to give up everything to get” Trump’s signature, he said, adding that would be a “mistake”.

Trump’s comment on Twitter sets the stage for what could be an uncomfortable confrontation over economic policy on Friday. The Canadian prime minister has called the decision “totally unacceptable” and “insulting” during various media appearances.

There was shock when the world’s largest economy confirmed it was imposing the duties on the EU, Canada and Mexico from 1 June, as part of President Donald Trump’s protectionist agenda aimed at saving United States jobs.

A French presidency official said that while G7 members would raise their unhappiness over the tariffs with Trump, they would not deliver an ultimatum that he drop them because the summit “isn’t the place where you negotiate things like that”.

Trump signaled that he was in no mood to compromise as he met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has tried to cultivate a friendly relationship with the American president.

This will be Trump’s second summit of the G-7, an informal gathering that meets every year under a rotating chairmanship. Trump has also seemed less than enthusiastic about the meetings, questioning if he even needs to attend.

Late Thursday, Trump tweeted an apparent reply.

This isn’t the first time Mexico employed a similar trade tactic to try to extract concessions from the US.

During the call in May, sources told CNN that Trudeau asked Trump how he could justify national security as a reason for placing tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. “We are going to defend our industries and our workers”, he said.

“Hog, apple, potato and dairy farmers are among those suddenly facing a 10 or 20 percent tax hike on the exports they depend of for their livelihoods”, she said in a statement. He called Trump a “trade reformer”.

“It is apparent that we have a serious problem with multilateral agreements here, and so there will be contentious discussions”, Merkel said.

“President Trump underscored the need to rebalance trade with Europe”.

“There may be disagreements”.

“I regard this as much like a family quarrel”, Kudlow said.

“I’m always the optimist, I believe it can be worked out”, Kudlow said. They certainly have long stopped standing up for fiscal responsibility, and though they held on to their free trade principles for some time and seemed to understand that trade “remedies” (such as tariffs) mostly hurt the American people rather than foreign exporters, that didn’t last long after Donald Trump took office.