WASHINGTON — Donald Trump says his top economic adviser has suffered a heart attack, just days after joining the U.S. president in Quebec for the G7 Summit that ended with increased trade tensions between Canada and the U.S.
Trump tweeted just minutes before his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday that Kudlow is being treated at a hospital near Washington, D.C.
Trump's tweet says, "Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack."
Kudlow's condition wasn't immediately released by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Our Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the economy, has just suffered a heart attack. He is now in Walter Reed Medical Center.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2018
The G7 meeting last week was shadowed by the Trump administration's escalation of rhetoric on trade and tariffs. It splintered shortly after the president left Quebec and tweeted he was pulling back his approval of a joint statement by the group.
Trump unleashed a Twitter tirade about Justin Trudeau, miffed that the prime minister had reiterated that Canada intends to impose counter-tariffs on some American goods in retaliation for what he called the "insulting" tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports — which the president has justified on national security grounds.
Kudlow appeared Sunday on CNN to back up Trump's complaint that he had been blindsided by Trudeau's criticism of his tariff threats at a summit-ending news conference.
He said on "State of the Union" that Trump "is not going to let a Canadian prime minister push him around" and accused Trudeau of "pouring collateral damage on this whole Korean trip."
Chief White House trade adviser Peter Navarro also took to the talk show circuit, telling Fox News there's "a special place in hell" for Trudeau and anyone else who negotiates in "bad faith" with Trump.