WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Little is known about what President Donald Trump’s intentions are for the Group of Seven summit in Evian, France next week, except maybe the obvious: the American president will impose his schedule and his mood.
“It is not possible to ‘manage Trump’ the way it has been possible during his first term,” Liana Fix, associate fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) ahead of the summit that will bring the US face-to-face with France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.
All these countries’ leaders have been on the receiving end of Trump’s trade wrath or diplomatic intimidation -- with the exception of Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Every other leader expected on the shores of Lake Geneva has been the target of attacks, criticism or mockery from the Republican billionaire.
Neither growing unpopularity that could cost Trump control of Congress in November, nor the Supreme Court’s annulment of his across-the-board tariffs is likely to soften his bruising stance toward global partners.
European leaders in particular have learned, through the Greenland episode, trade conflicts, and the Iran war, “to hope for the best but to expect the worst,” Fix said.
Moreover, the US has informed Europeans of their intentions to significantly reduce the number of planes and warships made available to North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Europe, The New York Times reported.
“I don’t think you’re going to see a weakened president,” Jackson James, senior fellow at German Marshall Fund of the US, told AFP.
“I think he’s going to go over there and do what he always does, which is just try to bully his way through these very, very complicated issues and try to get the American agenda, as he sees it, fulfilled.”
