What went wrong between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau at G7?

Summit left in disarray as US president
withdraws support for joint communique and attacks ‘weak’ Canadian
PM

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It follows an extraordinary press conference on Saturday in
which Trump threatened to cut off trade with countries that treated
the US unfairly, adding “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody
is robbing”.

Despite this it was hoped the communique, which had been
initially signed off by the US, would represent a general show of
unity among the world’s biggest economies.

Does the disagrement matter?

The US president’s Twitter outburst, sent as he flew to an
historic meeting with North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong Un in Singapore,
unravelled days of work by the world’s top nations in attempting to
resolve a growing global trade dispute.

Prior to the meeting, a White House official has told the
Washington Post that Trump was contemplating not signing the
statement but “in the end what Trump did seemed significantly
pettier” says Vox, claiming he decided to take his support
back because Trudeau pledged to follow through on earlier promises
to retaliate against US tariffs at a press conference after he
left.

“Even for a presidency as capricious as Trump’s, his action
marked a new blurring of lines between his personal feelings
towards other leaders, and US government policy” says The Observer.

The paper adds “it was also the latest example of Trump’s use of
much harsher language towards fellow democratically-elected leaders
of allied countries than to strongmen leaders of enemy and
adversary nations”.

How did other leaders react?

A picture taken by Jesco Denzel, a German government
photographer, and released by Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the
chancellor, Angela Merkel apparently showed world leaders
confronting Trump at the G7 summit.

To many observers the photograph offered “a rare glimpse of
diplomatic activity not wreathed in smiles and handshakes,” The Guardian says.

As G7 leaders were scrambling to respond to the latest US
U-turn, Emmanuel Macron’s office said in a statement:
“International co-operation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and
throwaway remarks”.

The response “suggests an end to what observers had noted was a
budding “bromance” between the French president and Mr Trump” says
Sky News.

The French president has used up a significant amount of
political capital wooing the billionaire businessman with almost
nothing to show for it. Despite a concerted lobbying effort, Trump
has withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement, the Iran nuclear
deal and imposed huge tariffs on European imports.

Ultimately though, Trump’s harshly worded tweets, personally
insulting one of the US’s closest allies and overturning an
apparent commitment that had been made just hours earlier, “made
his exit from the summit even more acrimonious than most analysts
expected” says Vox.