President Trump’s war of words with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau escalated this afternoon when the two leaders traded ultimatums – though one was clearly oblivious to what the other had done.
Trump took to Twitter to declare that he would “not allow” any other country to impose tariffs on the United States literally minutes after Trudeau announced he would be imposing retaliatory tariffs on the US, beginning July 1st.
The United States will not allow other countries to impose massive Tariffs and Trade Barriers on its farmers, workers and companies. While sending their product into our country tax free. We have put up with Trade Abuse for many decades — and that is long enough.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018
Trudeau literally just announced Canada will put retaliatory tariffs on the US on July 1. "Canadians are polite, we're reasonable, but we will not be pushed around," he said. https://t.co/7JOIl1fZiD
— David Mack (@davidmackau) June 9, 2018
Blistering with defiance, Trudeau sent a sharp warning to Trump, reminding him that “Canadians: we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”
The uncharacteristic aggression of Trudeau’s words highlights the strain that Donald Trump has unnecessarily poured onto the once rock-solid relationship between Canada and the United States with his nihilistic determination to start a trade war and trash the alliances that have maintained the balance of power in the Western world since the end of the Second World War.
JUST IN: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will impose retaliatory measures to answer President Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum: "Canadians: we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around." https://t.co/kOFlnuMaEH pic.twitter.com/32vYsYdtwP
— CNN (@CNN) June 9, 2018
President Trump’s recent imposition of enormously unpopular tariffs on our trading partners had been a major point of contention ahead of the talks, and this morning he doubled down on his reckless protectionism by delivering an ultimatum to the G7 summit:
“They have no choice. I’ll be honest with you, they have no choice. We’re going to fix that situation. And if it’s not fixed, then we’re not going to deal with these countries. We’re the piggy bank that everybody is robbing. And that ends” said Trump, threatening to cut them off from American markets entirely if they don’t reduce their trade barriers.
The president also renewed his call for the Russian Federation to be re-admitted to the G7, making it obvious that Trump is deliberately sabotaging our alliances with the rest of the western world and warming up to the Kremlin instead.
Trudeau was not pleased with that either.
Justin Trudeau says he told Donald Trump and others that Canada is not even remotely interested in considering the possibility of Russia rejoining the G7.
— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) June 9, 2018
Trudeau then moved on to subtly remind Trump how a real international leader behaves – by announcing a wonderful $3.8 billion investment in girls’ education across the globe and the signing of a Charter on Plastics in order to begin cleaning up our oceans and ensuring tragedies like the dead whale which was discovered with 17 pounds of plastic in their stomach.
The difference between the two leaders could not be more clear.
