Donald Trump’s adviser Peter Navarro apologises for saying Canadian PM deserves ‘a special place in hell’
A White House trade hawk concedes that in criticising Justin Trudeau, ‘I used language that was inappropriate’
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro apologised on Tuesday for suggesting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau deserved a “special place in hell” for a perceived breach in protocol against US President Donald Trump.
“My job was to send a signal of strength,” he said at a Wall Street Journal CFO Network conference in Washington. “The problem was that in conveying that message I used language that was inappropriate.”
Citing Confucius, Navarro said, “if you make a mistake and don’t correct it, that’s a mistake”. (Navarro seemed to be paraphrasing a quote from The Analects that the superior man, “when he makes a mistake, he doesn't hesitate to correct it”.)
Navarro, a supporter of tariffs to help reduce the US trade deficit and a longtime critic of China, turned his anger at Canada over the weekend as a Group of Seven meeting hosted by Trudeau ended in disarray and trade threats.
After leaving the meeting early, Trump tweeted that he was pulling US support from a joint statement and he accused Trudeau of being weak and dishonest during a news conference.