(NBC News)- President Donald Trump has withdrawn his invitation for his Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, to join his “Board of Peace,” in an escalating feud between the two leaders.
“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Thursday. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”
“Thank you for your attention to this matter!,” he wrote.
The Canadian prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment from NBC News.
No reason was given for the move by Trump, who has angered Canadians with repeated suggestions that he wants to annex their country. That animus flared again this week, after Trump bristled at Carney’s description of a “rupture” of the postwar international order in the wake of Trump’s territorial ambitions.
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“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
Carney responded Thursday, hours before Trump’s disinvitation, that “Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”
The Canadian government said that it had agreed in principle to accept Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, but made clear it did not plan to spend the voluntary $1 billion fee to ensure permanent participation.
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters in Davos earlier this week that there were “a lot of details to be worked out, but one thing which is clear is that Canada is not going to pay if we were to join the Board of Peace.”
Other key American allies, such as Britain and France, have declined Trump’s invitation to join the board.
Trump launched the body at an event on the sidelines of Davos on Thursday, joined by leaders from some democracies including Argentina and Indonesia.
But many of its members are authoritarian states criticized for their human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Hungary.
French officials have expressed concern that the board may seek to rival and undermine the United Nations, while Britain says it was put off by Trump’s invite of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
