Trump calls Trudeau ‘two-faced’ after gossip caught on video
By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
WATFORD, England (AP) — NATO leaders professed unity on Wednesday at a summit near London, but a spat over chit-chat at a royal reception rattled their show of solidarity.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to ridicule Donald Trump in comments caught on video, prompting the U.S. president to call hm “two-faced.”
In the video, Trudeau stands in a huddle with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Britain’s Princess Anne at Tuesday evening’s Buckingham Palace reception.
After Johnson asked Macron, “Is that why you were late?” Trudeau says, “He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top” — a reference to Trump’s long and unscheduled question-and-answer session earlier in the day.
Trudeau can then be heard saying, of Trump’s press conference, “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor.” He said later that he was describing the reaction to Trump’s apparently unanticipated announcement that the next Group of Seven meeting would be at Camp David, the presidential retreat.
The clip was posted online by Canadian broadcaster CBC and has been viewed more than 5 million times.
Speaking Wednesday at the summit venue in Watford, Trump told reporters that Trudeau “is two-faced.” He speculated that Trudeau was annoyed because Trump had “called him out” on Canada’s contribution to NATO.
Also on Wednesday, Trump canceled his scheduled news conference at the end of the NATO summit.
“When today’s meetings are over, I will be heading back to Washington,” he said in a tweet. “We won’t be doing a press conference at the close of NATO because we did so many over the past two days. Safe travels to all!”
Trudeau had a quiet word and a handshake with Trump as he arrived at the summit Wednesday, and later tried to shrug off the episode.
“As you all know, we have a very good and constructive relationship between me and the president,” Trudeau told reporters at a news conference.
Johnson, meanwhile, professed ignorance when asked by reporters about the conversation.
“That’s complete nonsense,” he said, adding: “I really don’t know what is being referred to there.”
Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.