The 70th NATO anniversary bore witness to much more than just the usual gathering of world leaders discussing new policies and initiatives. Reportedly, Donald Trump cancelled his scheduled press conference on the summit’s final day and departed London after a video of Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson, and Justin Trudeau mocking the US President went viral.
Johnson, Macron, and Trudeau were caught on video having an informal chat apparently about Trump. "He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,” Trudeau was overheard saying. "I just watched his team's jaws drop to the floor,” he later added.
The video, captured on Tuesday evening at the Buckingham Palace reception hosted by Queen Elizabeth II, quickly went viral on social media. When Trump was questioned about his reaction to the video, he condemned Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments and called him “two-faced.” He also went on to comment on how Canada was not meeting NATO's military spending goal.
"I called him out on the fact he is not paying two percent, and I guess he's not very happy about it," Trump said. But later, the US President was heard making light of his comments about Trudeau and instead said it was “funny when I said the guy's two-faced.”
Following the fiasco, Trump tweeted about cancelling the scheduled press conference he was supposed to hold to cap off the event and confirmed his departure from the summit.
It is widely known that Macron and Trump are not on good terms, especially since the French president called NATO “brain dead”. His words irked Trump who retaliated by slamming his comments as being “very nasty”.
As of now, the three diplomatic leaders are trying to avoid the blunder they have committed. Macron has refused to comment on the viral video as according to him it was “stolen” and “wasn't supposed to be filmed in that room.”
As for the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he is attempting to steer clear of the drama and instead insisting that his words have been interpreted wrongly. He has stressed that the agenda of the conversation was not to ridicule the President but to praise his recent decisions.
“We were all surprised and I think pleased to learn that the next G7 will be at Camp David. I think that was an unscheduled announcement and I think everyone's team, every different leader has teams that every now and then have their jaw drop at unscheduled surprises like that video itself for example,” said Trudeau.
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