Trump pulls U.S. from G-7 joint statement, upending 2 days of diplomacy

QUEBEC CITY — President Donald Trump refused Saturday to sign a joint seven-nation statement negotiated during the Group of 7 summit this weekend, saying in tweets from Air Force One that Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, had made false statements and was "very dishonest and weak."

Trump abruptly upended two days of global diplomacy after Trudeau announced broad agreements by the seven nations but pledged to retaliate against U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products.

"Based on Justin's false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communiqué as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!" Trump wrote as he flew to Singapore for a summit with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader.

"PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @g7 meetings," Trump added in a second tweet, "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!"

Earlier, Trump said he had brought up with the United States' closest allies the dramatic prospect of completely eliminating tariffs on goods and services, even as he threatened to end all trade with them if they didn't stop what he said were unfair trade practices.

The other six leaders had been defiant in the face of Trump's threats, even as they sought to play down the tensions.

"I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do," Trudeau said. "As Canadians, we are polite, we're reasonable, but also we will not be pushed around."

Speaking to reporters at the end of the contentious weekend meeting of the Group of 7 nations in a resort town outside of Quebec City, Trump said that eliminating all trading barriers would be "the ultimate thing." But he railed about what he called "ridiculous and unacceptable" tariffs on U.S. goods and vowed to end them.

"It's going to stop," he said, "or we'll stop trading with them. And that's a very profitable answer, if we have to do it." He added, "We're like the piggy bank that everybody's robbing — and that ends."

President Emmanuel Macron of France said the trade debates at the summit were "sometimes quite heated." Asked who won the tug-of-war with Trump, Macron said: "There is no winner, there are only losers when you take that strategy."

Theresa May, the British prime minister, blasted Trump's tariffs, saying that she had registered "our deep disappointment at the unjustified decision" and that the loss of trade through tariffs would "ultimately make everyone poorer."

Trump's threats toward the United States' trading partners Saturday came during a wide-ranging news conference as he skipped most of the second day of the summit in order to leave for a meeting in Singapore with Kim. Trump said he would know within the first minute of his face-to-face meeting whether Kim was serious about eliminating his country's nuclear weapons and trying to make peace with the world.

"Just my touch, my feel," Trump said. "That's what I do. You know, the way they say you know if you're going to like somebody in the first five seconds. Did you ever hear that one? Well, I think that very quickly I'll know whether or not something good is going to happen."

Trump said that he expected to "at least start a dialogue" with Kim, though he suggested, as he has several times recently, that more specific agreements with North Korea could require additional meetings.

The president's public comments on trade Saturday morning echoed the complaints he made directly to the leaders from Canada, Japan and Europe in private sessions Friday. Trump confronted several of the leaders individually, giving examples of how, in his view, each of their countries had mistreated the United States, whether it be through trade barriers or security commitments, according to a European official.

The president delivered a running monologue in one of the closed-door meetings, one person familiar with the discussion said. One minute, he slammed Germany for taking advantage of the United States by selling so many cars there. The next, he talked about how his grandfather was German and how much he loved Europe.

Several of the leaders responded aggressively to Trump's demands — as they have repeatedly done in public — listing their own complaints about U.S. tariffs and other trade measures, the official said. Several countries have said they will retaliate against the United States' new steel and aluminum tariffs with increased tariffs of their own.

"If they retaliate, they're making a mistake," Trump said Saturday.

Trump's surprise proposal for a tariff-free G-7 followed from a conversation the president had on Air Force One heading to Canada with Larry Kudlow, his national economic adviser. Kudlow, a self-described "lifelong free trader," wrote an op-ed article in The Washington Post on Thursday saying that he did not prefer tariffs but that Trump's actions were "a wake-up call to the dangers of a broken trading system that is increasingly unfree."

Trump and Kudlow discussed the article on the plane, but the president surprised even his own team by raising the idea with the other leaders. While some observers took it as more of a talking point, a senior administration official said the president was serious about it and wanted it given serious study. Other leaders, the official said, expressed interest.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe closed-door discussions.

Asked late Saturday what he told Trump about the surprise proposal for a tariff-free zone, Macron said, with a smile: "Be my guest, if that's your wish."

Speaking to reporters Saturday, Trump repeatedly insisted that the private discussions with his counterparts — whom he referred to casually, as "Justin" or "Angela" — had been positive.

"The relationship that I've had with the people, the leaders of these countries has been — I would really rate it on the scale of zero to 10," he said. "I would rate it a 10."

Trump arrived about 20 minutes late to the one morning meeting he attended here Saturday, a discussion about gender issues. He departed for Singapore immediately after his news conference.

The U.S. official played down the conflicts between the leaders, saying it was not the brawl some were depicting. A session with Trudeau, who had engaged in a sharp long-distance public exchange before the summit, went much better than expected, he said.

But the president made clear his level of anger about the long-standing trade policies that he said have hurt U.S. workers and undermined the country's national security by weakening America's "balance sheet."

The U.S. official said a deal with Mexico and Canada on the North American Free Trade Agreement seemed within reach, and Trump said he believed negotiators were close to an agreement to include one of two sunset provisions that would act as expiration dates for the deal.

But Trudeau said at the conclusion of the summit that his government is firmly opposed to that idea.

"There will not be a sunset clause," Trudeau said. "Canada has been unequivocal. We cannot, will not sign a trade deal that automatically expires."

Throughout his remarks Saturday, Trump repeatedly returned to his broader complaints about trade practices around the world, insisting that it was the fault of past U.S. leaders who had agreed to deals that benefited other countries more than the United States.

He complained that U.S. dairy farmers were being treated unfairly by Canada. "The United States pays tremendous tariffs on dairy, as an example, 270 percent," he said. "Nobody knows that."

"We don't want to pay anything," he said. "Why should we pay?"

The president also said U.S. farmers had been hurt for a long time by trade barriers that made it harder for them to sell their goods to other countries. "You look at our farmers," he said. "For 15 years, the graph has gone just like this: down."

"I blame our leaders," Trump said. "In fact, I congratulate the leaders of other countries for so crazily being able to make these trade deals that were so good for their country and so bad for the United States. But those days are over."

Trump said some of the other leaders he met with during the G-7 summit appeared to admit that their trade arrangements with the United States were unfair.

"A lot of these countries actually smile at me when I'm talking," he said. "And the smile is, 'We couldn't believe we got away with it.' That's the smile."

That assessment by Trump stands in contrast to the public statements by those leaders, who have repeatedly insisted that they will not accept the kinds of tariffs Trump has imposed on their industries.

In addition to trade, Trump also took questions about his call for Russia to be reinstated as a member of the G-7 nations, despite having been expelled four years ago in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea.

"I would rather see Russia in the G-8 as opposed to the G-7," he said. "I would say that the G-8 is a more meaningful group than the G-7. Absolutely."