Trump’s Blasts Upend G-7, Alienating Oldest Allies

WASHINGTON — Shortly before leaving the annual meeting of major world powers Saturday, President Donald Trump boasted that it had been “tremendously successful” and that on a scale of 0 to 10, “the relationship is a 10.”

Less than nine hours later, the relationship was plummeting toward a zero. With a petulant tweetstorm from Air Force One, Trump all but blew up the Group of 7 nations that the United States has led for more than four decades and essentially declared open political war on the United States’ closest neighbor.

Whatever hopes that other leaders had of pacifying Trump and papering over their widening differences on trade, security and the world order vanished in a flurry of harsh recriminations.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, the host of the meeting, and President Emmanuel Macron of France rebuffed Trump’s positions in public comments, followed by Trump’s abrupt refusal to sign the carefully crafted final communiqué.

The blowup left the United States alienated from its allies even more than it had been entering into the summit meeting. In public, Trump and his counterparts shook hands, mugged for the cameras and pretended they were friends. White House officials insisted the encounters were congenial. Negotiators struggled to come up with a compromise statement that all seven powers could agree to and, in a burst of relief, released it Saturday night.

But as the bruising aftermath made clear, the divide, for the moment at least, cannot be bridged by clever diplomacy and cordial talking points. Trump’s view of the world, and his country’s oldest and most important partners, is so infused by suspicion and grievance that he could not resist his pugilistic impulses even for a day.

“Trump is readier to give a pass to countries that pose a real threat to Western values and security than to America’s traditional allies,” said Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador to Washington. “If there is a ‘method to the madness,’ to use the words of British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, it is currently well hidden.”

Trump seems unbothered by the ostracism, making the case that the U.S. has allowed itself for too many years to be pushed around by foreign powers that took advantage of it, whether in trade or security.

In some ways, he wears the criticism from abroad as a badge of honor, proof that he is representing the best interests of the United States. His supporters cheer his aggressive posture on the world stage, seeing him as a champion of their needs.

Trump had already made clear before the G-7 summit that he had no intention of reconsidering his position on climate change or Iran. And he refused to ease steel and aluminum tariffs he just imposed on Europe and Canada, arguing that the allies have been taking advantage of the United States.

“There are disagreements,” Larry Kudlow, director of Trump’s National Economic Council, conceded at one point during the summit meeting. “My view? We can get through this.”

No one got through it this weekend, however. Trump signaled his disdain for the G-7 meeting by arriving late and leaving early. During closed-door meetings Friday, he went around the room, citing ways each of the other nations represented there had mistreated the United States in some fashion or another.

By departing before the end Saturday, he skipped sessions about climate change, oceans and clean energy — ceding not only the United States’ leadership on those topics but also its very seat at the table.

And with no warning Friday, Trump deepened that rift by calling for Russia to be reinstated as a member without insisting on any of the conditions the West has demanded in terms of ending its intervention in Ukraine.

Trump pressed the point Saturday, making clear that Russia’s annexation of Crimea should not stand in the way. “It’s been done a long time,” he said. “I would rather see Russia in the G-8, as opposed to the G-7. I would say that the G-8 is a more meaningful group than the G-7, absolutely.”

Trump also blamed his predecessor for what happened there. “You have to ask President Obama, because he was the one who let Crimea get away,” he told reporters before leaving Canada for his meeting in Singapore with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. “That was in his administration.” Trump, however, is at odds not only with the United States’ allies but also with many in his own administration. Even as he was clashing with European leaders Friday about a Russian return to the G-7, his director of national intelligence was giving a speech in France condemning Moscow’s malign behavior and warning against allowing it to divide the allies.

Speaking at a conference in Normandy, Dan Coats, the intelligence director, listed a series of actions by Russia in addition to its annexation of Crimea, including its efforts to interfere in U.S. and European elections and the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter living in Britain.

“These Russian actions are purposeful and premeditated and they represent an all-out assault by Vladimir Putin on the rule of law, Western ideals and democratic norms,” Coats said, according to prepared remarks. “His actions demonstrate that he seeks to sow divisions within and between those in the West who adhere to democratic norms.”

“The Russians are actively seeking to divide our alliance,” Coats added, “and we must not allow that to happen.”

Some foreign policy experts said Trump had a point about bringing Russia back to the table with the G-7. Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official who has been critical of the president, said “every once in a while he gets it right.” The breakdown of the West’s relationship with Russia stems from the failure to recognize Russia’s legitimate status in the world, he said.

“The G-7, G-8, is a big symbol of that,” said Shapiro, now the research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, based in London. “Letting them in was a big deal, and kicking them out was a big deal. We have to get past the notion that going to these meetings is some kind of reward.”

But Molly McKew, a foreign policy strategist who served as an adviser to the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova in their struggles with Moscow, said the expulsion of Russia from the G-8 reflected “a sense of unity” in the West that has eroded since Trump’s election, encouraging some European nations to want to return to doing business with Russia.

“As Trump’s America is increasingly isolated and viewed as a rogue actor, the Kremlin is again preying upon ‘economic openness’ to buy silence for their crimes in Ukraine, Syria and beyond, even as they attack our societies,” McKew said.

That may be true in the long run. But for now, Trump’s actions have helped strengthen the bonds between the other allies, especially in Europe, where political and demographic forces — including populist movements and Britain’s vote to leave the European Union — had begun undermining their common purpose. Now, that common purpose is increasingly aimed at countering the United States instead. Disagreements over policy are not the only thing driving the United States away from its traditional allies. Trump’s personal style has also confounded and sometimes infuriated his counterparts, who never know quite what to expect.

“On a Monday, you could be his best friend, on Tuesday his worst enemy, and by Friday, you’re golf buddies again,” said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive officer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The G-7 nations struggled to reach any kind of consensus for a joint statement that Trump could sign. The U.S. delegation balked at including the phrase “rules-based international order” only to back down in the final talks. But within minutes of the statement’s being released, Trump declared that he would not sign because he was mad at Trudeau’s comments during a post-meeting news conference.

“The G-7 should be our preferred venue to unify the free world to compete with and counter authoritarian kleptocracies,” said Damon Wilson, a former national security aide to President George W. Bush and now vice president of the Atlantic Council, which advocates trans-Atlantic cooperation. “Rather than prepare for that real battle, we’re distracted in a family dispute.”