Trump Confirms He Made Inflammatory Off-The-Record Comments About Canada During Bloomberg Interview

Hours after Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale bombshell report on President Donald Trump’s supposedly off-the-record comments during Thursday’s Bloomberg interview, the president took to Twitter to complain that he’d been “BLATANTLY VIOLATED” by the leak while simultaneously confirming he’d made the remarks.

Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED. Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2018

“Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED,” POTUS tweeted Friday afternoon. “Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!”

As Dale’s report noted, Trump told Bloomberg that he was not going to make any compromises in his NAFTA talks with Canada and if the remarks went public “it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.”

“I can’t kill these people,” he noted, adding that any potential deal with Canada will be “totally on our terms.”

By Friday morning, the leaked remarks had upended trade discussions between the two countries, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seeing it as proof that Trump was never planning on offering any compromises.

Following Trump’s tweet, Dale noted that the president had confirmed his story and pointed out that he “won’t be commenting on the source of the leaked quotes.”