Key events
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
G7 to start amid Trump trade tensions and Iran-Israel crisis
Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog
When Donald Trump last came to Canada for a G7 summit, the enduring image was of him seated with his arms folded defiantly as then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel stared daggers at him.
If there is a shared mission at this year’s G7 summit, which begins Monday in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, it is a desire to minimize any fireworks at a moment of combustible tensions.
Trump already has hit several dozen nations with severe tariffs that risk a global economic slowdown. There is little progress on settling the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and now a new and escalating conflict between Israel and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Add to all of that the problems of climate change, immigration, drug trafficking, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and China’s continued manufacturing superiority and chokehold on key supply chains.
So it looks like the Trump, and the leaders of Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Canada are in for a busy time.
Stay with us for all the developments:
In other news:
-
The man suspected of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers, killing one of them and her husband, has been taken into custody, two law enforcement officials said. Vance Boelter was arrested Sunday evening.
-
Trump has directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities after large protests have erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against his administration’s immigration policies.
-
French President Emmanuel Macron warned that Greenland is “not to be sold” nor “to be taken” in a key visit to the strategic Arctic territory coveted by Trump
The White House has stayed decidedly mum about its goals for the G7, which originated as a 1973 finance ministers’ meeting to address the oil crisis and steadily evolved into a yearly summit that is meant to foster personal relationships among world leaders and address global problems.
There is no plan for a joint statement this year from the G7, a sign that the Trump administration sees no need to build a shared consensus with fellow democracies if it views such a statement as contrary to its goals of new tariffs, more fossil fuel production and a Europe that is less dependent on the U.S. military.
“The Trump administration almost certainly believes that no deal is better than a bad deal,” said Caitlin Welsh, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank who was part of Trump’s team for the G7 in Trump’s first term.
