Trump described Justin Trudeau as a "double-sided person" and canceled the press conference, after the Canadian Prime Minister and other leaders were caught mocking him.
The US president hinted at Trudeau mocking himself because he complained that Canada's defense spending has not reached its NATO target of 2% of GDP. "He should spend more money. I can understand that he is not happy about it, but that is what needs to be done," Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the December 4 NATO summit in Britain.
At the reception on the sidelines of a NATO summit at Buckingham Palace on the evening of December 3, the leaders of England, Canada, France and the Netherlands were recorded by the camera on conversations that mocked Trump too much press conference. Trudeau said that French President Macron was late because Trump was engrossed in answering the media 40 minutes when the two leaders met bilaterally and said "his team was gasping in shock." Trudeau and the other leaders did not mention Trump's name directly and did not seem to realize he was being filmed.
On December 3, Trump spent 52 minutes answering a reporter's question during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, about 40 minutes in a meeting with Macron, and about 30 minutes in a meeting with Trudeau afterwards. Trump plans to continue his press conference today, after 29 NATO leaders met in secret for three hours and issued a joint statement.
However, after the end of the bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump canceled the press conference. "We will go home now. I see we have a lot of press conferences," he said. It is not clear if Trump's move is related to the mocking video above.