US trade adviser Peter Navarro apologises for insulting Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, has apologised after saying “there’s a special place in hell” for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is in a trade dispute with President Donald Trump.

“In conveying that message, I used language that was inappropriate and basically lost the power of that message,” CNN quoted Navarro as saying on Tuesday at the Wall Street Journal’s annual CFO Network conference.

“I own that. That was my mistake, those were my words.”

Asked if he was apologising for the comments, Navarro said: “Yeah, absolutely.”

Following the G7 summit in Quebec last week, Navarro told Fox News on June 10 that “there’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door”.

Navarro’s comments were part of the White House’s continued criticism of Trudeau after the Prime Minister announced that Canada would impose retaliatory measures to answer Trump’s tariffs and warned that Canada would not be “pushed around”.

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, echoed Navarro in a CNN interview also on June 10, saying that Trudeau’s comments amounted to a “betrayal”.