Four takeaways from the 45th G-7 conference
Three days after calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping an “enemy” of the United States, on Monday Trump had once more decided that he was a “friend” and announced that Washington and Beijing would open trade talks “very shortly.” In between those poles, stock markets around the world crashed, economists warned of a global recession, and pundits speculated how much a weak economy would hurt Trump’s reelection chances in 2020.
This is a game of chicken. As each nation raises tariffs on the other, the winner will be the leader who can sustain the greatest pain for the longest time without sacrificing his political base. Watch President Trump squirm as 2020 approaches.
Every time Donald Trump shows up at a global summit, he looks like the kid who’s just crashed the party. He’s the leader presidents and prime ministers fear and loathe, but he’s also the leader with the keys to the global economic and political kingdom. Eventually, all present themselves to show their obeisance.
At the recent G7 summit in France, it was no different. As soon as President Trump flew into town, he was whisked off to an unscheduled meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Fractures in the unity of the world’s most powerful nations soon appeared: Macron wanted to focus the meeting on global warming, fires in the Amazon, and appeasing Iran. Trump, on the other hand, wanted to talk about trade with Europe, trade with China, trade with Japan, and convince his erstwhile European allies that isolating Iran is a better strategy than bribing it.
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