Trump Raves Over Macron at G7, While Aides Slam France.
BIARRITZ, France Lunching on a patio overlooking the Bay of Biscay at the Hôtel du Palais on Saturday, President Trump gushed over Emmanuel Macron, the French president and the host of the weekends annual Group of 7 meeting, held this year in the quaint beach town of Biarritz in the south of France.
But even as Mr. Trump bragged about what he called a special relationship with Mr. Macron, saying they have been friends for a long time, members of Mr. Trumps administration were publicly and privately dumping on the French president and his team. They complained that the focus of the summit was more on niche issues than the global economic challenges facing their nations.
Senior administration officials said that the agenda would center too much on issues designed to play well with Mr. Macrons domestic audience like climate change, income and gender equality, and African development and was engineered to highlight disagreements with Mr. Trumps administration.
They accused Mr. Macrons aides of ignoring pleas by Trump administration officials to focus the summit, which runs through Monday, on national security and a looming economic slowdown. And they said Mr. Macron was purposely trying to fracture the Group of 7 by veering away from its longstanding mission of ensuring that the strains on other economies do not spread globally.
France, this years host, wants the Group of 7 to stay silent on these core economic issues, Larry Kudlow, the director of Mr. Trumps National Economic Council, wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal as Mr. Trump arrived in Biarritz. Mr. Kudlow accused the French of focusing on politically correct bromides and said the Group of 7 was in danger of losing its way. Trade and the global economy have gotten short shrift.
The orchestrated message, some of it delivered by administration officials who asked to remain anonymous in order to criticize a foreign leader, underscored the deep rift between Mr. Trump and his counterparts in an organization that during earlier times succeeded in fostering cooperation and consensus among the heads of state of the worlds leading democracies.
And it served as a reminder that Mr. Trump easily tires of the niceties of diplomacy.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/24/us/politics/trump-g7-economy.html?
questionseverything
(9,656 posts)AFTER SPENDING THE LAST WEEK DESTROYING THE WORLD'S ECONOMY, TRUMP ADVISERS BLAME FRENCH FOR NOT FIXING WORLD'S ECONOMY
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(130,974 posts)questionseverything
(9,656 posts)elleng
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(53,791 posts)captain queeg
(10,208 posts)Skittles
(153,169 posts)just STOP IT already