Donald Trump split with G7 allies because Kim Jong-un ‘must not see American weakness’, according to adviser
Dealing with Trump’s whims and last-minute changes of mind has proven a procedural nightmare, analysts claim, leaving European leaders unsure how to preserve any kind of multilateral cooperation
US President Donald Trump’s harsh words for Canada’s prime minister after the Group of Seven (G7) summit aimed to avoid a show of “weakness” ahead of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a top adviser said on Sunday.
“Potus [the president of the United States] is not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around – push him, Potus around, on the eve of this,” economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on CNN’s State of the Union. “He is not going to permit any show of weakness on the trip to negotiate with North Korea. Nor should he.”
Trump arrived in Singapore on Sunday for the summit, with Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal at the top of the agenda. The US president has called it a “one-time shot” at peace.
Before leaving Canada for the summit the previous day, the US president took to Twitter to describe G7 host Justin Trudeau as “very dishonest & weak”.
Trump said he had instructed US representatives not to endorse the joint communique issued at the end of the summit.
The US president seemed particularly incensed by Trudeau’s comments in a news conference criticising Trump’s decision to invoke national security to justify US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
That decision was “kind of insulting” to Canadian veterans who had stood by their US allies in conflicts dating back to the first world war, Trudeau said.