Trump claims 'nasty' photo taken at G7 meeting was 'very friendly'
Donald Trump admits that a now famous picture of him with his arms folded "didn't look friendly" but claims leaders were talking..
Tuesday 12 June 2018 13:46, UK
President Trump insists a picture taken at the G7 summit which shows him with his arms folded and Angela Merkel looming over him was "very friendly".
The US President told a news conference after his historic summit with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore, that the captured moment, which ended up going viral, was actually the G7 leaders talking about "unrelated matters".
He told reporters: "I know it didn't look friendly, and I know it was reported as like, sort of nasty, both ways, I was angry at her.
"Actually were were just talking, the whole group, about something unrelated."
Trump was responding to a question about his relationship with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau following their public spat last week, and explained what had happened after he had left the leaders' meeting.
He said: "I left and everything was very friendly. Anyway, I get on the plane and I think that Justin probably doesn't know that Air Force One has about 20 televisions, and I see the television, and he's giving news conference about how he will not be pushed around by the United States, and I say 'push him around? We just shook hands'. It was very friendly."
Trump went on to talk about the trade agreement between the US and Canada, as well as with other countries such as Germany.
He said: "They don't take a lot of what we have, and yet they send Mercedes, they send BMWs by the millions. It's very unfair."
It was the Instagram account of Angela Merkel where the now famous picture of the G7 group originated, but Trump insisted the two get on "very well".
Trump said the G7 meeting was "good", but in the same breath warned the host country it would pay for the comments of its prime minister.
"I had a very good meeting with the G7," Trump said, rejecting suggestions the summit was a failure. But he also said that critical comments from Justin Trudeau would cost Canada "a lot of money".