Chuck Todd: Is Trump Going to Have ‘Credibility Problem’ With World Leaders After Trudeau Flap?

In a seemingly endless series of scandals, the White House is again left clinging to its credibility.

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd slammed President Donald Trump‘s administration Thursday after a leaked fundraising speech showed he made up claims that Canada ran a trade deficit with the U.S., which he argued was true in a conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In the recorded remarks made in Missouri during the private fundraiser event, Trump recapped the discussion without hesitation.

“Trudeau came to see me,” he recalled. “He’s a good guy, Justin. He said, ‘No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please.'”

In response, Trump decided to fib… a lot.

“I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know… I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’”

Baffled by the president’s remarks, Todd questioned the motives behind Trump’s admission.

“Why the president would seemingly boast about that isn’t entirely clear,” Todd said.

True to form, Trump took to Twitter to defend his claims, stating he knew the U.S. ran a trade deficit with Canada because it does with everyone, according to his calculations.

However, Todd took issue with the math involved when Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders used census data the White House “cherry picked” to show a deficit with Canada on the basis of goods only, rather than including services.

“So, once again, it appears as if the president said something wrong, doubled down on it, and the White House found what appears to be a misleading set of facts in an attempt to prove that he’s right,” Todd said. “It’s a very long way of showing you that it’s very hard to take this president or the White House at their word. We just showed you… they’ve totally misled us on Canada! The president already has a credibility problem on Capitol Hill. Is he gonna now have the same problem with world leaders after admitting to making stuff up when he speaks with them one-on-one?”

[image via screengrab]