Dec 4, 2019

Trump slams "two-faced" Justin Trudeau for mocking him in leaked video

President Trump described Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "two-faced" over a video clip in which Trudeau appeared to mock Trump alongside other world leaders.

Between the lines: The video that surfaced on Tuesday showed leaders including Trudeau, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron at Buckingham Palace gossiping about Trump on a hot mic.

"Well, he's two-faced. And honestly with Trudeau, he's a nice guy. I find him to be a very nice guy. But you know the truth is that I called him out on the fact that he's not paying 2%, and I guess he's not very happy about it.... He's not paying 2% and he should be paying 2%. It's Canada. They have money."
— Trump today

Flashback: Trump described Canada as "slightly delinquent on defense spending" yesterday, and insisted twice that Trudeau provide his country's current defense spending figure as a proportion of GDP (Trudeau said it was around 1.4%).

  • Trump was speaking today alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself a frequent target of Trump's over defense spending.
  • Asked about German spending ahead of their meeting, Trump said: "Well, Germany's a little bit under the limit, I will say that, but we'll talk about that now."

Context: Trump and Trudeau have never had a warm relationship. As Axios' Jonathan Swan writes, Trump finds Trudeau an irritant at best.

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Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 7:30 p.m. ET: 6,852,810 — Total deaths: 398,211 — Total recoveries — 3,071,142 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 7:30 p.m. ET: 1,917,080 — Total deaths: 109,702 — Total recoveries: 500,849 — Total tested: 19,778,873 — Map.
  3. Public health: Why the pandemic is hitting minorities harder — Coronavirus curve rises in Florida — How racism threatens the response to the pandemic — Some people are drinking and inhaling cleaning products in attempt to fight the virus.
  4. Tech: The pandemic is accelerating next-generation disease diagnostics — Robotics looks to copy software-as-a-service model.
  5. Business: Budgets busted by coronavirus make it harder for cities to address inequality — Sports, film production in California to resume June 12 after 3-month hiatus.
  6. Education: Students and teachers flunked remote learning.
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