President Trump Says He Made Up Trade Claims In Meeting with Trudeau
COOPER: Well, keeping them honest tonight, we intended to report on efforts by the White House and the president himself to spin their way out of a claim the president made at a fundraiser last night about a face-to-face conversation he had last month with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And as convoluted as that already sounds, it gets, well, kind of stranger, because about an hour ago, the White House continued their damage control and said the face-to- face meeting that the president talks about was actually not face to face at all and was instead a phone call. That followed a respected Canadian journalist citing his sources in the prime minister's office saying they don't remember any such specific conversation actually taking place. Like I said, weird. But it's important to keep all that in mind as we talk about it because we don't really know who said what and when. We could be fact-checking a fund-raiser fairy tale of the president's own making. So, with that disclaimer, here's what the president said at the fundraiser last night about this alleged confrontation over trade with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Trudeau came to see me, he's a good guy, Justin. He said no, no, we have no trade deficit with you. We have none. Donald, please. Nice guy, good looking guy, comes in -- Donald, we have no trade deficit. He's very proud because everybody else we're getting killed with our -- so he's proud. I said, wrong, Justin, you do. I didn't even know. Josh, I had no idea. I just said, you're wrong. You know why? Because we're so stupid. It's impossible. And I thought they were smart.</s>COOPER: So, the president saying I didn't even know I had no idea, but I just said you're wrong. In other words, he did not know the facts so he made them up. Keeping them honest, though, it's not like talking trade with the Canadian prime minister should have taken President Trump by surprise or frankly anything else. When President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau met for the so-called bromance summit two years ago, they talked trade, Canadian dairy and exports to be specific. George W. Bush and his Canadian counterpart wrangled over timber exports. Virtually every president, every Canadian prime minister have at some point argued over one trade issue or another, that's because Canada is one of this country's biggest trading partners, and keeping them honest, it's also one of the few countries with which the United States has a trade surplus. Not only is that a fact, it's a fact the president himself put his signature to. Just a few weeks ago, this is the economic report of the president. It's 562 pages-long. The money quote as it were is on page 228. Figure five six illustrates the distribution of goods and services balances across major U.S. trading partners in 2016, all countries show a services surplus offsetting a goods deficit with U.S. running a net bilateral surplus only with Canada and the United Kingdom. And as we said on page 11, there is the president's signature. So, when he spoke with Prime Minister Trudeau he was apparently unaware of the facts inside the report that he himself signed only a few weeks before. Now, Justin Trudeau was right. The U.S. does not have a trade deficit with Canada, yet here's what the president tweeted this morning. We do have a trade deficit with Canada as we do with almost all countries, some of them massive. PM Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn't like saying that Canada has a surplus versus the U.S. negotiating, but they do, they almost all do, and that's how I know. Again, the facts the president's own facts say no, but again, it's possible we're talking about the president defending statements he never actually made during conversation that never actually happened, despite him telling an audience it did. In any event, by this afternoon, Press Secretary Sara Sanders was fielding questions on this topic.</s>REPORTER: Are there other times that the president has had conversations with his counterparts around the world in which he is not accurate in terms of the conversation that he's having with them?</s>SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, the president was accurate because there is a trade deficit and that was the point he was making, is that he didn't have to look at the specific figures because he knew that there was a trade deficit. Whether they got down into the dollar amount or not, there is a trade deficit between the two countries. I don't have that number right in front of me but I know that we have it. We'll be happy to provide it to you.</s>COOPER: Keeping them honest, that is not factually correct, full stop. As for Ms. Sanders, having the info and providing it, she later tweeted that there's a deficit in goods only, not overall trade. And, of course, when measuring surpluses or deficits, you count everything, especially if talking to another world leader and making it clear you're counting everything. But again, that is if conversation even actually took place as the president claimed. And since we're now fully in the weeds in a hall of mirrors and perhaps down a rabbit hole, it's worth noting something else that the president said last night when talking about trade -- talking about the difficulties selling American cars in Japan, he talked about one vehicle that had met all the requirements, except for one. Quoting the president here, he said: And they were ready to prove it approve it and they said, no, no, we have to do one more test -- he's talking about the Japanese. It's called the bowling ball test. Do you know what that is? The president then explained: that's where they take your bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and they drop it on the hood of the car and if the hood dents, then the car doesn't qualify. You know where he's going with this, I think. Again, quoting: Well, guess what, the roof dented a little bit and they said, nope, this car doesn't qualify. It's horrible the way we're treated, it's horrible. And yes, it sounds horrible and horribly unfair dropping a bowling ball from 20 feet up onto the hood of a car. But keeping him honest, no one can actually figure out what the president was actually referring to. There is apparently no bowling ball -- bowling ball test. There are countless standards in Japan, here and elsewhere, on collisions, airbags, emissions pedestrian safety, you name it, nothing involving bowling balls and dented hoods. Here's how Sarah Sanders dealt with that fact.</s>SANDERS: Obviously, he's joking about this particular test, but it illustrates the creative ways some countries are able to keep American goods out of their markets. Thanks so much, guys. See you tomorrow.</s>COOPER: She was reading that directly from a page you could tell. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? Tonight brings CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour who's joining us. She's host of the aptly named "AMANPOUR". Christiane, what message does it send to world leaders because when -- I mean, it comes to relationships between the U.S. and its allies, don't those leaders believe what the president says especially when it's one of our closest allies, Canada?</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, it is -- it is actually very troubling because this seems to be part of the president's and the White House sort of feeling from the gut policy. You know, he said that many times, and it also is -- you know, really troubling because we do deal in facts and we deal in empirical evidence, and so should world leaders expect that when they have conversations with the president the United States or his advisors. They expect him to be fully briefed on major issues of trade as you just mentioned and the like. And, of course, as we move into potential, really hard negotiations, North Korea for instance, Iran, the decision as to whether to pull out of the nuclear deal, you know, you really have to know the facts in order to make the wisest decisions.</s>COOPER: Well, it's also one thing for the president to make up facts in some sort of negotiating discussion with -- you know, the Canadian prime minister. But then -- and it's a lie about the facts -- but then to go in front of an audience and talk about how you've lied to the Canadian prime minister just seems doubly odd.</s>AMANPOUR: Well, look, I mean, look, who knows? Who really knows why if you're not the person saying it? But it does sort of, you know, bring you again back to this situation that we seem to be living in, whether it's tweets, whether it's these kinds of conversations and recorded conversations and transcripts, we hear that the president has had conversations outside the range of cameras and the like, and it does sort of kind of summon up, conjure up an alternative universe. Whatever it is, it is a flouting of the norms and the rules of the road of competent, working governance, and that's the thing that's quite dangerous and quite mystifying because then you have the White House press spokesman, the communications director going out and having to repeat these things, because that's who she works for and she's going to repeat them. And as you notice, actually reading from a page on the last one. So, people around the world have kind of factored in the Trump factor and they say, you know what he says what he tweets we're just going to really focus on what he actually does, but it's getting more complicated as the issues become much, much more complicated and even on trade -- I mean, Anderson a couple of whenever it was ten days ago, he decided to slap huge percentage tariffs on steel and aluminum on who? On Canada, his closest ally, on South Korea, who he needs for the North Korea negotiations, on Europe and the others. The ones he's trying to hurt, China, barely sell any steel to the United States, some 2 percent. And then it's the next day, we have this unraveling of maybe what we won't put these tariffs on our allies. So, then you ask, well, who you're going to put them on? What's the point?</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: And it is this sort of rabbit hole and we're trying to figure out whether there's a coherent policy. But as I keep saying, you know, in this moment when Rex Tillerson has been fired for all his failings, the world and the allies are concerned about major issues of war and peace and nuclear proliferation and the like.</s>COOPER: Well, especially, I mean, it comes -- you know, as the U.S. is gearing up for this meeting with North Korea. So, if Kim Jong-un doesn't believe what President Trump is saying or South Korean allies don't, we're talking about the country's nuclear program, I mean, you know, those stakes could not be higher.</s>AMANPOUR: Well, precisely, I mean, you've got one episode which is that they just don't have all the officials to properly engage in this major negotiation, you know, they've got hundreds and hundreds of people should be engaged from the State Department, Treasury Department, Energy Department, to make this work. It's going to take a long time. But more to the point, it's not only if Kim Jong-on doesn't believe it, it's what might the president say to Kim Jong-un, giveaway, suggests that could be on the table. And by the way, where is Kim Jong-un's answer as yet to this invitation to a meeting?</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: So that all these unknowns -- and, by the way, what happens now that you have Mike Pompeo, more like-minded, who might be secretary of state after a confirmation process, who doesn't like the Iran deal, is much more close to Donald Trump and who's very hawkish on North Korea, you know, how do you navigate these very, very important and delicate and consequential international negotiations?</s>COOPER: Yes. Christiane Amanpour, thanks very much. Coming up now, what do you want to call it executive time or spending hours in front of the television, by most accounts the president spends a lot of time watching and tweeting about TV and the people who are on it, some of whom including himself, make it all the way to the White House. A closer look, coming up next.