Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser to President Trump, said Tuesday it was a mistake to say publicly there is a “special place in hell” for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and said he went too far while trying to send a “signal of strength.”
“In conveying that message, I used language that was inappropriate and basically lost the power of that message,” Navarro said during the Wall Street Journal’s CFO Network meeting. “I own that, that was my mistake, my words.”
Navarro on his @JustinTrudeau comments: says his job last Sunday was to send a signal of strength. “In conveying that message I used language that was inappropriate and basically lost the power of that message. I own that, that was my mistake, my words.” #WSJCFO
— CFO Journal (@CFOJournal) June 12, 2018
Navarro made the remark during an interview Sunday, after Trudeau threatened retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.
Trump called the prime minister “very dishonest and weak.” When asked about the spat between Trump and Trudeau on Fox News, Navarro said “there’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door.”
“And that’s what bad faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference. That’s what weak, dishonest Justin Trudeau did, and that comes right from Air Force One,” he continued.
Navarro received a host of criticism for his remarks, including from Senate Republicans.
