In battle of tweets, Canada's Trudeau dismisses Trump critique

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said nothing in his G7 news conference that he has not said before to U.S. President Donald Trump, his office said after Trump criticized Trudeau on Twitter as “weak and dishonest” in the wake of the Group of Seven summit.

“The prime minister said nothing he hasn’t said before — both in public, and in private conversations with the president,” Trudeau’s office said in a statement released on Twitter, which added Trudeau remained focused on what was accomplished at the two-day summit in Quebec.

After departing from the Quebec summit for Singapore, Trump tweeted that Trudeau's remarks at a news conference, where he said Canada would not be pushed around, "were very dishonest and weak".

"PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, 'US Tariffs were kind of insulting' and he 'will not be pushed around.' Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!" the US president tweeted.

The Group of Seven leaders came to their summit in Canada braced for battle, and while everyone had smiles ready for the cameras, behind the scenes U.S. President Donald Trump delivered recriminations on trade to U.S. allies, leaving the once united club deeply divided. Trade dominated the two-day summit that began on Friday (June 8) with leaders of Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Britain and Italy returning to the topic repeatedly in meetings.

"One could say that we weren't able to completely turn around President Trump's approach on trade, he's continuing to say what he says, fine, so be it," Trudeau said.

Leaders who had vowed to confront Trump over his decision to impose tariffs on U.S. allies last week as part of his "America First" agenda, showered Trump with data one after the other.

"I told the president that we would be moving forward with retaliatory equivalent tariffs as of July 1st," Trudeau said. "And he expressed to me that he thought that would be a mistake and I certainly agree that it's not something that we want to do. I don't want to hurt American workers. They're our neighbors, they're our friends. But my job is to stand up for Canadian workers, Canadian interests, and I will do that without flinching."

Trump had also suggested that Russia be re-admitted to the G7. Russia was suspended from the group in 2014 because of its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said EU countries at the summit agreed that the conditions to readmit Russia had not been met and even Moscow seemed to reject the suggestion.

"I said very simply that it is not something we are even remotely interested in looking at at this time, to have Russia return to the G7," Trudeau said.