The old cliché of throwing fuel on the fire couldn’t be more appropriate this morning.  As he was leaving for the G-7 summit in Canada, Donald Trump said he believes Russia should be readmitted to the group.  What was the G-8 expelled Russia after Moscow invaded The Crimea.  Other European members of the alliance Don’t want Russia to return and there’s that little matter of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.

 

Meanwhile, the White House announced that Trump would be leaving the G-7 meeting earlier than planned and flying directly to Singapore for the summit with Kim Jong Un.  But why leave early?   From Politico:

  • Before the Thursday night announcement, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada both promised to confront Trump over his recent decision to impose tariffs on U.S. allies.
  • Trump, in response, laid into the two leaders on Thursday evening and Friday morning over those plans.
  • “Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create non-monetary barriers,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 Billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow.”
  • On Friday a little after 6 a.m., he tweeted, “Canada charges the U.S. a 270% tariff on Dairy Products! They didn’t tell you that, did they? Not fair to our farmers!” and “Looking forward to straightening out unfair Trade Deals with the G-7 countries. If it doesn’t happen, we come out even better!”

So, Trump has managed to alienate two of America’s closest allies and two world leaders who at least pretended to get along with him.  And the G-7 meetings, traditionally a series of photo ops to show how democracies can get along, is now threatening to devolve into a shout fest, if not in person, certainly on social media.

From The Washington Post:

  • The battle lines were already drawn by Thursday morning, when Trudeau stood alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a joint news conference. Both leaders have spent considerable energy over the past year attempting to find common cause with the Trump administration, hoping to coax Washington back toward its traditional role at the center of the transatlantic alliance. But Trudeau’s government is locked in difficult NAFTA negotiations with the United States, and Macron has been stung by Trump’s decisions to quit both the Paris accord and the nuclear deal with Iran, disregarding Macron’s repeated pleas.

So now Trump will leave early and miss the climate talks on Saturday and the traditional group photo, which will not be full of smiling faces.