President Trump is primed and ready to humiliate the United States yet again on the international stage when he attends the G7 meeting in France this weekend. It’s anyone’s guess what nonsense will dribble from his slack jaw and which ally he’ll pick a pointless, petty fight with but it’s safe to presume the event will be an unmitigated diplomatic disaster.
Reuters reports that President Trump—rather than trying to smooth out any of the countless feuds he’s started or stitch up the holes he’s punched in the liberal world order—intends to tell the other nations in attendance to behave more like how the United States has under his stewardship. Presumably, he will ignore the disastrous effect his tariffs have had on America and the fact that many predict a recession is right around the corner.
The president is slated to hold individual meetings with the other G7 meetings, according to senior administration officials who spoke to Reuters. Trump intends to boast about how the American economy has fared under his administration and focus on his tax cuts and deregulation. Again, presumably, he will omit the negative realities, like the fact that he has skyrocketed the deficit and his deregulation measures are accelerating the world towards a climate catastrophe.
“You will really hear the president hit home the message of the pro-jobs, pro-growth economic agenda. We’ve seen growth rates that we didn’t think were possible just a few years ago. And you … contrast this to what’s happening in Europe where growth is effectively flat,” said the official.
Trump will try to convince the other leaders to gear their markets towards helping American firms conduct business in an open and lucrative fashion. Unfortunately for the United States, this president has shredded our credibility so thoroughly that foreign countries have little reason to presume America will act in good faith.
Why should they take Trump at his word when he could turn around and slap tariffs on them or demand territorial concessions like his recent Greenland spat with Denmark? He can’t be trusted and they know it. The best-case scenario is that Trump only moderately embarrasses our country. Anything more optimistic is foolish.
