Emmanuel Macron steamrolls Donald Trump

| 11:36 am EDT August 26, 2019
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The G7 summit is, mercifully, ending. Donald Trump humiliated himself by spelling Emmanuel Macron’s name wrong twice, by randomly tweeting about Regis Philbin while he was supposed to be paying attention, and by (naturally) pushing for Russia to be reinstated into the G7. The summit has to end with closing formalities, and that meant Trump and Macron holding a joint press conference.

Emmanuel Macron took his big swing at Donald Trump when he clandestinely invited the Iranian Foreign Minister to the G7 summit behind Trump’s back, in an effort to work around him. But now that Trump and Macron are facing questions together, Trump is insisting that inviting Iran to the summit was his idea. In response, Macron insisted that Trump will have to sit down with Iranian president Rouhani, which is the last thing on earth Trump wants to do.

It’s clear who’s running this show. Donald Trump is historically unpopular, lacking in any remaining political muscle at home or abroad, and he’s basically waiting to be finished off. Emmanuel Macron may be willing to be polite to Trump’s face during the G7, which is what real leaders do, but he’s steamrolling Trump behind the scenes.

At the end of their joint appearance, Macron even managed to beat Donald Trump at his handshake game, as Macron made a point of not letting go, even after Trump had become visibly uncomfortable. Now Trump has to limp home to a teetering U.S. economy and 2020 poll numbers that get worse for him by the day.