The meeting between Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US was already being laughingly called the G6+1 at least a week before it formally opened, with Trump being the schoolyard bully from the get-go.
And while it is not unusual for G7 leaders to deviate from the formal agenda at their meetings – what Trump managed to do was unheard of – especially because the United States has always taken the lead in steering the G7 in its endeavors. As one journalist wrote, Trump ended up playing “the skunk at the garden party.”
Basically, we can forget about any agreements made by the seven member nations because right after the president got back on board Air Force One, he took to Twitter to announce he had ordered his officials not to sign a joint statement underlining the G7’s commitment to “free, fair, and mutually beneficial trade”.
Then, in another angry Twitter outburst, Trump accused Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, of being “dishonest and weak.”
It boils down to this – Our leader’s unilateral security decisions, protectionist policies, and climate denial have not only made him the laughing stock of the majority of Americans, but Trump’s latest Twitter tirade has managed to pit the U.S. against the rest of the world.
Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, said: “In a matter of seconds, you can destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters.”
And of course, the president blamed Trudeau for the breakdown over tariffs. “PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around’,” Trump tweeted.
Demonstration of Trump’s questionable leadership skills
All that happened this past weekend is all part of Trump’s greater plan to screw not only our allies but the American public, as well. Not only did he make an abrupt about-face on an agreement he signed but his “court-jesters” back in Washington already were prepared to back their leader up on Sunday morning.
Chief White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, who was with Trump at the meeting, accused Trudeau of being a double-crosser. “He really kind of stabbed us in the back,” he told CNN’s State of the Union.
Peter Navarro, White House trade adviser, told Fox News Sunday: “There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door.”
All that has transpired raises another question as our great leader prepares to meet North Korea’s great leader. Does Trump not think Kim Jong Un hasn’t been watching his antics over the past few days? How in the world can Trump expect anyone, anywhere, to trust anything the U.S. says or promises?
