Trump told G-7 leaders that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’: report

President Trump earlier this month reportedly told the leaders of the Group of Seven member countries that NATO was “as bad as NAFTA,” according to Axios.

At the G-7 summit in Canada, Trump reportedly said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was “too costly for the U.S” and compared it to the North American Free Trade Agreement that he has often targeted as a bad deal. 

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“It will be an interesting summit. NATO is as bad as NAFTA. It’s much too costly for the U.S.,” Trump said during the meeting with leaders, according to an official who read notes transcribed from the closed-door meeting to Axios. 

Trump was reportedly making a reference to the upcoming NATO summit in Brussels in July. 

The president made the comment after reportedly telling G-7 leaders that Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, be a part of Russia because people there speak Russian. 

The report highlights what appears to be a growing rift between Trump and the United States’ Western allies.

Trump announced last month that the U.S. would slap hefty steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union, Canada and Mexico, sparking retaliatory remarks from the U.S. trading partners. 

The heightened rhetoric between the leaders has injected more uncertainty into the future of NAFTA. 

The president involved himself in a war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the immediate aftermath of the G-7 summit, calling him “very dishonest & weak.”

Trudeau has vowed to retaliate against steel and aluminum tariffs the U.S. has put on Canada’s metals industries. 

Trump earlier this month accused Canadians of crossing the border with the U.S. to buy products and “smuggle” them back into their country because their tariffs are so high.