President Donald Trump canceled his press conference scheduled after the scheduled NATO summit on Wednesday in London.
“When today’s meetings are over, I will be heading back to Washington,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We won’t be doing a press conference at the close of NATO because we did so many over the past two days. Safe travels to all!”
Trump canceled the press conference after video surfaced of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mocking Trump for spending too much time with the press.
The news predictably upset reporters who traveled to the summit.
“He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference at the top,” Trudeau said in a small group of world leaders, and added, “You just watch his team’s jaws drop to the floor.”
The president on Tuesday opened up a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to the press for 52 minutes, French President Emmanuel Macron for 39 minutes, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for 30 minutes. On Wednesday, Trump also spoke to the press during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for eleven minutes.
Trump responded to the video clip on Wednesday by describing Trudeau as “two-faced” but still “a nice guy.”
He added that Trudeau was likely upset after he called out Canada for failing to meet the 2 percent GDP defense spending threshold required by the NATO treaty.
“I find him to be a nice guy, but the truth is, I called him out on the fact that he’s not paying 2%, and I guess he’s not very happy about it,” he said.