Trump Claims He Rejected Trudeau's Meeting Request

No meeting was requested, Canadians say
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 27, 2018 1:18 AM CDT
Trump Claims He Rejected Trudeau Meeting Request
President Trump speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in New York.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Canada, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in particular, were among President Trump's many targets in his freewheeling press conference Wednesday. Trump claimed that he had rejected a one-on-one meeting with Trudeau at the United Nations this week because talks to renegotiate the NAFTA deal are not going well, the Atlantic reports. "His tariffs are too high, and he doesn't seem to want to move and I've told him forget about it, and frankly, we're thinking about just taxing cars coming in from Canada," Trump said. "We're very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada," he added. "We don't like their representative very much." Trudeau's office, however, tells the CBC that "no meeting was requested" and it will not comment further on the matter.

Mexico has already signed a deal ahead of the Trump administration's Oct. 1 deadline, but talks with Canada have not gone as smoothly—possibly because Trump insists that any deal will be "totally on our terms," according to remarks leaked earlier this month. Sources tell CNBC that US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer might issue the text of the Mexico deal, with framework to add Canada at a later date, as soon as Friday. Trump told the press conference that he refuses to use the name NAFTA. "What we're probably going to do is go with the USMC, like the United States Marine Corps, which I love," he said, though he added that it might be just "USM," for the United States and Mexico. (More Justin Trudeau stories.)

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