White House aide apologizes over ‘special place in hell’ comment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House trade adviser Peter Navarro apologized on Tuesday for his sharp comments directed at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after last week’s Group of Seven summit, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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At an event hosted by the Journal, Navarro said he had made a mistake, according to the newspaper.

“My mission was to send a strong signal of strength,” Navarro said at the event, the Journal reported. “The problem is that in conveying that message I used language that was inappropriate.”

Navarro, in a Fox News interview on Sunday, condemned Trudeau after the Canadian leader’s post-summit news conference following the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders from the Group of Seven.

“There is a special place in hell for any 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,” Navarro said on the “Fox News Sunday” program.

A day before, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow also lashed out at Trudeau.

Both aides accused Trudeau of betraying Trump when he gave a news conference after the U.S. president had departed. At the event, Trudeau said Canada would take retaliatory steps in response to Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs imposed on Canada and other allies.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jeffrey Benkoe)