Thread: Trump at G7: misses Macron meeting, suggests bringing Russia back

Trump at G7: misses Macron meeting, suggests bringing Russia back

By Kevin Liptak, CNN
Updated 3:02 PM ET, Fri June 8, 2018

The series of events opened what promises to be a day-and-a-half of open animosity between Trump and infuriated western leaders, who are intent on airing their grievances before the President departs for his talks in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The stark reality of a US president skipping out on fuming western allies to have what he's described as a "friendly negotiation" with the North Korean despot has not been lost on diplomats and leaders assembled in the Canadian woods.

And Trump has done little to ease their jitters.

He suggested just before touching down in Quebec that Russia should be allowed to rejoin the summit after five years in exile -- a break in the united front allies had hoped to put forward against Moscow's destabilization efforts in the US and Europe.

The remark seemed destined to only escalate the existing tensions between Trump and the six other leaders gathered at a riverside resort here. The annual G7 conference is usually a fairly news-free endeavor, with agreements on the global economy hammered out well before world leaders gather for two days of talks.

This year the normally staid affair has been imbued with uncertainty and bitterness. Few expect the assembled leaders will even agree on language for a joint "communique" that typically concludes the summit.
In the mid-afternoon, Trump emerged with fellow world leaders and smiled broadly for a "family photo." The underlying tensions weren't visible as the Saint Lawrence River glinted in the background. But the group retreated quickly behind closed doors for the start of their talks.

Before leaving the White House, Trump previewed a harsh tone for his foreign counterparts.

"We're going to deal with the unfair trade practices," Trump said. "If you look at what Canada, Mexico, the European Union, all of them have been doing to us for many, many decades, we have to change it. And they understand it's going to happen."

Trump was initially due to meet mid-morning with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who he'd lambasted a night earlier on Twitter. But Trump emerged from the White House South Portico 30 minutes late on Friday morning, and spent another 20 minutes talking to reporters.

Tense phone calls

By the time he did arrive in Canada, met by a cordon of red-jacketed Mounties, he was well behind schedule, making the meeting impossible. Aides were working to reschedule it for later in the day.

The two men did confer briefly before the summit began. Macron tweeted a short video of himself and Trump speaking while seated on a sofa inside the golf club where the summit is being held.

In the video, the men appeared to be conversing cordially -- a distant cry from an online argument that broke into public view on Thursday.

Last week, Macron candidly criticized Trump's policies during a phone call over trade and immigration that turned sour, two sources told CNN. Trump held a similarly tense phone conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau around the same time.

The allies have also been trading barbs on Twitter. Trump declared Trudeau "indignant" on Twitter Thursday evening, decrying his trade views.

After Macron's suggestion that G7 nations would band together without the US, Trump responded by accusing France, as part of the European Union, of "charging the US massive tariffs and creat(ing) non-monetary barriers."

The enmity between Trump and Macron was stunning given the elaborate displays of friendship both men have lavished upon each other over the past year. Trump was Macron's guest at last July's Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, an honor reciprocated with a state visit at the White House this spring.

The relationship was sometimes characterized as a "bromance," though aides to both men have downplayed that, suggesting instead something of a rivalry between two alpha males new to the political scene. As other leaders in Europe found themselves distracted by domestic political strife, Macron took it upon himself to cultivate Trump as a partner, at least in the areas where they could agree.

They have found some common ground, namely on security issues and an allied campaign of airstrikes in Syria as punishment for the regime's chemical weapons use. But, in most areas they still disagree.

Neither leader has ever papered over their deep differences on trade, foreign affairs and climate change. But those rifts were always cast as disputes between friends, and unlikely to rupture the longstanding alliance.

A fractured set of alliances

Now, that assumption has been called into question. In Canada, Trump is confronting a fractured set of western alliances that he has shown little desire to repair. Instead, Trump has embraced the discord with his French, Canadian, German and British counterparts, lashing out on Twitter in the hours before departing on Air Force One for Quebec.

In European capitals and among delegations gathered here at a pristine golf resort, anxiety over the future of US leadership has become more palpable than perhaps any other point in Trump's presidency, with the acrimony spilling into view just as the largest industrial nations hope to put forward a united front.

Trump was unenthusiastic about traveling to Canada for the talks, according to aides, who said he questioned whether his presence was absolutely required. Even as late as Thursday afternoon, he quizzed staffers over whether it was too late to cancel his participation.

He was told that scrubbing his visit altogether would appear like he was shrinking from a fight he proudly began. But his stay in Canada was nonetheless cut short by several hours late Thursday evening when the White House said Trump would depart for Singapore on Saturday after a morning session on gender equality. That means he'll skip the section of the summit focused on climate change and the environment, sending an aide in his place.

If there was any hope the fissures might be repaired before Trump arrived, it was dashed on Friday morning when the President told reporters he was open to reinstating Russia's participation in the group, which was suspended after Moscow's incursion into Ukraine in 2013.

"Russia should be in this meeting," Trump said. "Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting? And I would recommend, and it's up to them, but Russia should be in the meeting. They should be a part of it."

The step of cutting Russia out of the G7 was viewed as a decisive step at the time, one meant to convey unity and isolate and penalize Vladimir Putin as he embarked upon a destabilizing set of actions meant to divide western nations.

But five years later, the West has never appeared more fractured. US intelligence agencies have determined Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election in the hopes of helping Trump. And Putin was recently re-elected to another term.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/polit...ing/index.html

And he took boxes of WORK with him on the plane!

They are all stewing in their own doo doo.

YOU will not rip off the American people any more.

Our ATM machine is out of order...and WE are not the dumping ground for the World either!

LOL!! They really are! And the beauty of how he's using the Russians against the G7, he's getting ready for a Summit with Russia to lock up this Peace DeNuke North Korea 100% Treaty.

The heck with Russia and the murderous Putin. Perhaps Trump is feeling grateful because Russia backed him in the election against Hillary. Globally, I don't know exactly who did and didn't support Trump against Hillary but unfortunately I suspect the vast majority of them supported Hillary.

Trump hits the world stage, Day 1: Come late, leave early, offend host, alienate allies

The president made quite an impression at the G-7 meeting in Canada on Friday. Saturday he departs to Singapore for his summit with Kim Jong Un.

by Jonathan Allen / Jun.08.2018 / 6:37 PM ET

QUEBEC CITY — The world is getting a good look at the two faces of the Trump administration at this week's G-7 meeting in Charlevoix, Canada: One is that of a team of government officials working hard to find common ground with like-minded nations on a wide range of policy issues, while the other is that of a president who at times seems bent on taking a hammer to the whole process.

The U.S. still hopes to be a party to the traditional end-of-summit joint G-7 agreement Saturday, even as President Donald Trump spent much of the week jabbing other world leaders, threatening to raise tariffs on U.S. allies and arguing that America would be better off if the conference didn't produce a new deal.

On Friday, he upped the ante just before heading to Canada: Russia, he said, should be allowed to rejoin the G-7.

That remark was "not planned," according to a National Security Council official.

Indeed, it was taken by foreign diplomats, veterans of American foreign policy and lawmakers of both parties in Congress as yet another sign that Trump — who also boasted this week that he doesn't need to prepare much for his nuclear summit on Tuesday with North Korea's Kim Jong Un — is winging it with potentially dangerous consequences.

It "gives the Kremlin one more opportunity to take advantage of divisions" between the U.S. and other G-7 nations, said Bob Hormats, who worked in high-level jobs at the National Security Council and the State Department in several administrations.

While new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte backed Trump on Russia, the rest of the G-7 has little interest in rewarding a nation that was expelled in 2014 for annexing Crimea.

Because of that — and because Congress won't let Trump get very far in bilateral discussions with Russia — the embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin "could only be a diversionary tactic to disrupt things," Hormats said.

And there's good reason for Trump to want to upend the table and reposition all the pieces. His trade battles with allies, including Canada and the European Union, have left the U.S. isolated at these talks. As a result, Trump's in danger of being faced with the choice of either being excluded from any agreement on economic and security issues or joining with nations he says are cheating American workers.

"The American president may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter on Thursday. "Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force."

Trump said Friday that he thinks they will find consensus. "I think we'll have a joint statement," he said.

And yet the president has sent signals that it's the G-7 that needs the U.S., not the other way around. He showed up late enough Friday that he had to reschedule one bilateral meeting and planned to leave early enough Saturday to miss G-7 sessions, leaving an aide to represent America in the final discussions.

Trump has also said defiantly that he won't back down from the tariffs he's using as a tactic to extract better trade deals from American allies. Peter Navarro, the assistant to the president on trade and manufacturing policy, sought to explain Trump's position in a New York Times op-ed published Friday.

The tariffs are designed to rectify U.S. trade deficits and protect industries — such as steel and aluminum production — that are essential to American military strength, Navarro wrote.

"Neither of these goals of the Trump presidency should stand in the way of our longstanding and productive strategic alliances and economic relationships with members of the Group of 7," Navarro wrote. "President Trump welcomes continuing dialogue and cooperation with Group of 7 members and our other allies and trading partners. But the days of accepting unfair trade practices are over."

it probably shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone in the Trump administration that other countries are reluctant to make economic concessions to a superpower so that it can enhance the strongest military in the world. Nor should it be a shock that those countries would respond by demonstrating their solidarity and trying to isolate the U.S.

The tension appeared to ease a little bit Friday evening, as Trump and Trudeau sat down for a one-on-one session.

"Justin has agreed to cut all tariffs, all trade barriers," Trump joked in a quick exchange with reporters.

"I’d say NAFTA is in good shape," Trudeau replied, playing along for the audience.

Still, Trump noted the awkward dynamics when Trudeau was asked if he was upset that Trump would be leaving early. "Oh, he's happy," Trump said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...ienate-n881576

Trade isn't about politics and elections. It's about numbers. In fact, it's only about numbers. How much comes in, how much goes out. There are two types of trade, goods and services. The one that matters most is how much in manufactured goods goes out versus how much comes in, resulting in either a surplus or a deficit. Last year, there was a trade deficit in manufactured goods of over $800 billion.

Here is a link that every ALIPACER and other Americans should read. It's a chart of our trade history since 1960. Trump saw this early, 35 to 40 years ago. So did I because of the work I did. Everyone in the know or in a job dealing with this would see this and ask "what in the hell is going on".

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade...ical/gands.pdf

It would do well for members of the corrupt media to read this link, and while most of them won't understand what it says, because they're airheads, they should ask someone what does this mean? And whoever they ask who knows can tell them it means, trade policy just let $800 billion of hard earned American income and wealth fly out the window, it's why we print money all the time, it's why we borrow to fund the government, it's why we don't have enough good jobs to successfully employ all our people with full time jobs with benefits, it's why most Americans don't have even $1,000 in savings and their credit card (s) if they still have one are maxed out, it's why we have 75 million Americans on Medicaid and another 12 million on SCHIP, it's why we have 60% of students in K-12 public schools on free school lunch, it's why we have 43 million people on food stamps, it's why our poverty level is still around 14%, and the vast majority of those are working age persons with at least 1 job in the household.

Our trade deals with the EU and NAFTA are two are the big culprits, certainly not the only ones, but two of the big ones that combined represent about $300 billion of that deficit in manufactured goods.

The other 6 members of the G7 thought they could corral Trump at this meeting in Quebec City and pressure and cajole him into concessions on the steel and aluminum tariffs and through Canada, on NAFTA as well. He made it as clear as anyone could, that won't work on him, it won't work on his trade team, and it won't work with the American people, and then to humorously show his level of disinterest in tariff and trade concessions, that he quipped "by the way, where is Russia, shouldn't they be here, I think they should be here" and completely collapsed their "LEGO" to get Trump.

It was so funny. I've laughed about it all day. And in just a few hours he'll be on Air Force One zooming off to Singapore to the North Korea Summit, to try to end a 70 year old war other people started and denuclearize North Korea that other people allowed to develop nuclear weapons, leaving Trudeau, Macron, May, Merkel and the rest (except for Italy, a new friend) sucking dust asking each other "what just happened, did Trump just diss us?" Yep. You were dissed. Now go home and figure out what to do with all your "refugees".

Americans must remember, that we don't need foreign trade unless it benefits US. Farmers think they need it because they produce more of certain products than they can sell in the US, instead of diversifying their farms and growing more of what they can sell in the US. Americans have always stood by our farmers, it's time our farmers stood by US.