After President Trump's behavior at the last G-7, expectations of any real consensus was so low that the host, France's President Emmanuel Macron, decided to skip the signing of a final communique this year. And it was obvious that the other leaders were treating Trump with the primary goal of not setting off his temperamental bad reactions. They have learned to couch everything within a blanket of flattery for him and to avoid topics that upset him.
For example, the U.K.'s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the one who very very gently broached the subject of Trump's imposed tariff's on China. But first he overly praised the U.S.s economy, giving Trump credit for the accomplishment and then sort of gently slipped in at the end that they didn't think tariffs were a good idea.
This description makes it sound like the other leaders were walking on eggshells; but, actually, I think they've moved beyond fear of him -- because he literally does not have the power of the de facto leader any longer. It's more that they are just moving on without him -- and, since he's there, they're trying to keep him from blowing up what the others are trying to accomplish.
The problem with this, however, is that the group rotates where they meet and who organizes and chairs the meeting. And next year, the host will be the U.S. and Trump.
Peter Nicholas wrote further about the meeting for The Atlantic, as quoted below"
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The most striking photograph to emerge from the G7 summit meeting in Biarritz, France, is one of an empty chair.
[Trump skipped the meeting where climate change was to be discussed. He later told reporters he was not going to 'exchange America's wealth for windmills.' which don't work very well anyway, he claimed.]
The White House put out a statement that Trump was busy talking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and couldn’t make it—though both of those leaders found time to show up for the session. No one waited for Trump . . . .
Which is becoming the norm.
With Trump at odds with much of the free world, the free world seems to be moving on without him. At the G7, leaders seemed to have given up on the prospect of forging a consensus with him on trade, climate, and even whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is friend or foe. The summit appeared to be organized in ways that diminished the likelihood of a Trumpian tantrum.
Leaders ditched the tradition of ending the summit with a full-blown communiqué—a joint statement—reflecting common values and a strategy for confronting the most vexing problems. They may have been scarred by the blowup at the end of the G7 last year in Canada.
Trump withdrew from the communiqué and, after leaving Canada, insulted the summit’s host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, sending out tweets calling him “very dishonest and weak.”
Nothing like that happened in this go-round (at least as of this writing. . . . Still, Trump’s counterparts made clear that if he wasn’t willing to be a partner, they might go it alone. . . .
French President Emmanuel Macron, acting independently, invited the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to the summit for private talks aimed at defusing tensions with the West. Trump didn’t talk to Zarif, but Macron did. . . .
“I did it on my own,” Macron said of Zarif’s appearance at the summit, adding that he kept Trump fully briefed on the diplomatic overture to Iran.
Trump had also sought to persuade his G7 counterparts to readmit Russia to the club, from which it was suspended following its annexation in 2014 of Ukraine’s Crimea. The leaders argued about it during a dinner Saturday night. Trump’s view is that Russia’s presence would be helpful in resolving disputes. . . .
That argument fell flat. Even his newest G7 friend, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was unmoved. “We are opposed because we see no evidence from recent Russian behavior which would warrant readmission to the G7,” a British official told me.
“There has been a pattern of malign behavior from Russia—whether it’s 2016 [U.S.] election interference, the chemical attack in Salisbury [England], the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, or actions supporting the Assad regime [in Syria]—which is at odds with the principles and broader ideas around the G7.”
Next year, Trump may have more sway. The G7 will take place in the U.S., and Trump, as host, is free to invite guests, including Putin.
“Would I invite him? Certainly I would invite him,” Trump told reporters.
Trump never seemed all that eager to be in Biarritz. He looked distracted at times. His aides had told reporters that climate change is a “niche” issue that shouldn’t be a particular focus, perhaps the real reason Trump skipped the meeting. . . .
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As host for the 2020 G-7 meeting, Trump is pushing the idea of holding it at his own Doral Golf Club in Florida. But this would seem to be in direct violation of our Constitution's Emolument's Clause in that the president would benefit financially from the meeting -- an issue that has been ignored by the Trump organization now for three years. But this would be even more blatant in that it would not just be people deciding on their own to stay at his hotels -- but our government would actually be hosting a major event at a Trump property -- with guest countries and all their entourages paying their expenses to the Trump Organization.
Something else for Rep. Elijah Cummings and his Government Oversight Committee to hold hearings on.
Ralph
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