WATFORD — US President Donald Trump called Justin Trudeau “two-faced” on Wednesday over comments the Canadian Prime Minister appeared to have made about him at a NATO summit in Britain the day before.
Trudeau was filmed at a Buckingham Palace reception for NATO leaders on Tuesday evening describing how surprised US officials appeared to be by Trump’s performance at an earlier news conference.
The conversation, which involved Trudeau, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, was recorded on video and snippets were audible.
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“Is that why you were late?” Johnson asked Macron.
“...It was like a 40-minute press conference,” Trudeau said. “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Forty minutes.”
Other words were exchanged but could not be heard, before Trudeau added: “I just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor.”
Asked on Wednesday if he had heard Trudeau’s remarks about him, Trump said: “He’s two-faced”. He suggested that Trudeau was upset because he had challenged him for failing to meet the target of spending 2% of national output on defence.
“I find him to be a very nice guy but you know the truth is that I called him out over the fact that he’s not paying 2% and I can see he’s not very happy about it,” Trump said at a news conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“He’s not paying 2% and he should be paying 2%,” Trump added. “Canada - they have money. Look, I’m representing the U.S. and he should be paying more than he’s paying, he understands it ... I can imagine he’s not that happy but that’s the way it is.”