The G7 6/12/2018

12, June 2018                                         The G7

Is Donald Trump losing it? It appears that there was complete agreement at the conclusion of the G7 meeting. Trump professed to be pleased, calling the summit wonderful and rating his relationships with other leaders as ten out of ten (the G6 members rated it as a zero).
Yet barely ten minutes after the official communiqué was published, he abruptly changed his mind instructing his officials not to endorse the communiqué. He admonished Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister for making “false statements” and renewed his threat to impose tariffs on automobiles supposedly “flooding the U.S. Market!”

A flummoxed spokesman said Mr. Trudeau had said nothing at the news conference that would explain the thin skin Trump’s volatile outburst. The more mature members of the G7 had tiptoed around the radioactive Trump wary of his unpredictable behavior. His combination of bullying rhetoric and aggrieved victimhood is well-known. The ‘art of the deal’ maestro is rarely persuaded by facts.

Perhaps the most jarring moment during the meeting was Trump’s insistence that the ‘big bad wolf, Russia, be readmitted to the group that had excluded it in 2014 after its invasion of eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. The drumbeat of Russia-Trump collusion seems to be getting louder. 

In contrast to the other members of the G6 who came well prepared Trump’s desk was bare. The Cirque du Soleil “knotty” performers who entertained the G7 leaders were not the only ones tying extricate themselves from the knots of the “US Spiderman”.