President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relationship continued to sour, with the pair having a heated phone call after the Canadian leader announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., according to a new report.
Trump and Trudeau spoke Wednesday, a day after the prime minister said he was implementing 25 percent tariffs on some American exports after the president’s sweeping levies came into effect. The call — which Trump told reporters was “somewhat’ friendly while Trudeau called it “colorful” and “substantive” — was in fact heated and profanity-laden, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The White House referred The Independent to the president’s initial characterization of the call when contacted for comment.
Their phone call came after Trudeau tried to contact Trump on Monday night, one day before the president’s tariffs were set to hit. Trump did not take that call, the Journal reports.
When Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico went into effect Tuesday, Trudeau called them “dumb” and accused Trump of acting in “bad faith.”
“It’s not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal, but Donald, they point out that even though you are a very smart guy, this a very dumb thing to do,” Trudeau said Tuesday, referring to an editorial Monday accusing Trump of taking the “Dumbest Tariff Plunge.”
“We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see,” Trudeau added.
Trump has justified the tariffs by arguing Canada has allowed fentanyl to flow into the U.S., a claim which Trudeau labelled "completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false."
The prime minister also accused Trump of orchestrating "a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that will make it easier to annex us.”
"That is never going to happen,” Trudeau said. “We will never be the 51st state.”
Meanwhile, Trudeau wasn’t the only leader the president ghosted amid tariff negotiations. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum tried to call Trump Monday, but he refused to take it, the Journal reports.
But the pair did speak recently, Trump revealed Thursday as he announced that most Mexican goods are exempt from his tariff plan for the next four weeks.
“I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl.”
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