President Trump[1]’s performance at the Group of Seven summit in Canada, including a late arrival, an early exit, a spat with the host and a rejection of the final communique, played to some largely negative reviews in Canada and Europe Monday.
His blunt talk and unapologetic “American first” agenda on trade may provide a boost for Mr. Trump[2] with his U.S. political base, but it elicited unusually sharp comment from foreign news organizations and pundits.
It comes as no surprise that Canadian outlets were among the harshest critics, following Mr. Trump[3]’s very public clash of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the Canadian leader insisted after Mr. Trump[4] departed that his country “would not be pushed around” on trade issues. CP24, a Toronto-based TV News organization, said Mr. Trump[5] had acted the bully while praising Mr. Trudeau for “remaining above the fray.”
The Toronto Star in an editorial called Mr. Trump[6]’s performance “dishonest and amateurish.”
“He sulked his way through the first part of the meeting, gave his delegation the OK to sign the summit’s pallid final communique, then threw a hissy fit and tore it up as soon as he was back on Air Force One,” the paper said.
Mr. Trump[7] often found himself isolated at the G-7 gathering, for the tariffs he recently applied on Canadian, Japanese and European steel and aluminum and for rejecting the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Hopes that the leaders could close the gap or at least paper over the differences evaporated quickly.
The German news site Der Spiegel said Monday that “the U.S. is treating its allies worse than its enemies,” calling Mr. Trump[8] an “egomaniac” who, “because he thinks he is the greatest, … is immune to rational arguments.”
Le Parisien, one of France’s highest circulation newspapers, wrote that “the French woke up with the surprise of the American president backtracking, despite all the efforts made by [French President] Emmanuel Macron the day before to make [Mr. Trump[9]] sign the final communique.”
Some said Mr. Trump[10] was simply carrying through on promises to reorient American foreign policy, but that the G-7 summit provided little clarity on where Mr. Trump[11] wants to take the alliance of the West’s most powerful democracies....
“It is now clear that the goal of the American president is to change the world order. That’s what he was elected to do,” wrote the Italian newspaper La Stampa. “The question what he wants to replace it with, and if the new model can really offer everyone more opportunities than the current one he intends to demolish.”EU leaders offered muted — but occasionally pointed — evaluations of the summit’s outcome. British Prime Minister Theresa May made no direct comments attacking the U.S. president, but emphasized