Donald Trump’s meltdown for the ages

| 11:11 am EDT June 10, 2018
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Donald J. Trump left the G7 conference in Canada early Saturday to get to the upcoming summit with North Korea in Singapore. Before and after doing so, he created additional tensions with the members of the G7, who have been our allies on the world stage but with whom a deepening chasm has been created by Trump.

After leaving the G7, Trump made several tweets from his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, attacking Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. His tweets included: “PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”

Trump also vented: “Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!”

The Charlevoix G7 Communique (available here) began by bringing together these seven leaders of the world by stating:

“As advanced economies and leading democracies, we share a fundamental commitment to investing in our citizens and meeting their needs and to responding to global challenges. We collectively affirm our strong determination to achieve a clean environment, clean air, and clean water. We are resolved to work together in creating a healthy, prosperous, sustainable and fair future for all.”

Reading this, one wonders if the blow up by Trump on Air Force One as he travels to Singapore about the “false statements” that Trudeau made today (nobody is quite clear what those lies are) is cover for what was likely to be the end result- the Communique speaks to climate and environmental protections. But the Communique was broader and contained language that attempted in a serious manner to address the increasing trade war tensions that Trump has instigated by his own words and actions. The Communique provides:

“We note the importance of bilateral, regional and plurilateral agreements being open, transparent, inclusive and WTO-consistent, and commit to working to ensure they complement the multilateral trade agreements. We commit to modernize the WTO to make it more fair as soon as possible. We strive to reduce tariff barriers, non-tariff barriers and subsidies”

With the stroke of a few letters on Trump’s smartphone, which as a reminder is not secure, he has erased any gains made in Canada at the G7, isolated the United States from allies, and cozied up to Russia.