OTTAWA, Ontario — If Donald Trump was counting on Justin Trudeau to bend to U.S. trade demands after a series of verbal attacks on the Canadian prime minister, it’s not working so far.

Trudeau is staying out of the fray, trying to forge ahead on a revised North American Free Trade Agreement as his country and key allies rally around him in the face of unprecedented criticism from his neighbor and chief trading partner.

“From day one, we have said that we expected moments of drama and that we would keep calm and carry on throughout those moments,” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday in Ottawa. She will visit Washington on Wednesday, speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and possibly meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

U.S.-Canada relations have rarely been more strained. Trudeau’s closing news conference at the G-7 summit in Quebec this weekend sparked a flurry of reactions from the Trump administration after the prime minister said the U.S. decision to impose tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum on national security grounds was “insulting.”

Though Trudeau had made these comments many times before, Trump and his advisers quickly responded. The president tweeted from Air Force One that Trudeau was “dishonest,” and weak. His advisers went further, with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro saying there was a “special place in hell” for leaders like Trudeau who negotiate with Trump in bad faith. Navarro apologized Tuesday, saying he used language that was “inappropriate.”

Trump took another poke at Trudeau from Singapore after his summit on North Korea. “I have a good relationship with Justin Trudeau – I really did, other than he had a news conference that he had because he assumed I was in an airplane,” the president said at a news conference. “He learned. That’s going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada.”

Several leaders from the G-7 meeting either expressed support for Trudeau or criticized Trump. “There is a special place in heaven for Justin Trudeau,” European Council President Donald Tusk said.

“Trump’s disruptiveness is one thing, but his treatment of Canada and other U.S. allies is unprecedented,” said Roland Paris, a University of Ottawa professor and former Trudeau foreign policy adviser. “Nevertheless, it remains the job of the government to find ways of working constructively with this chaotic man, while vigorously defending Canadian interests.”

Another thing buoying Trudeau has been the near-universal Canadian response to Trump’s comments. The country has rallied together, with public opinion polling showing there’s wide support for Canada’s retaliatory tariffs against the steel and aluminum duties that will kick in for some U.S. goods on July 1.


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