G7? Say hello to the G6
Despite some misunderstandings across social media, Donald Trump did not formally withdraw the United States from the G7 last night. However, he did announce that he was refusing to sign the communique issued by the other G7 leaders, meaning that he and the U.S. are officially standing apart from what the rest of the G7 agreed upon during this weekend’s summit. So where does this leave us?
As with so many other new lows in the ever-more humiliating Donald Trump era, it’s not entirely clear where this leaves us. There are still seven nations in the G7. But if only six of the seven nations are officially working together, and the seventh nation has formally rejected what the other six nations have agreed to, then we’re effectively looking at the G6 by default.
World leaders have been increasingly trying to unofficially work around Trump for the year and a half that he’s been pretending to be President of the United States, but this is something new. What happens to trade relations between the U.S. and the new de facto G6? No one knows. Trump surely doesn’t know, as he spouts different gibberish every day about what he wants from the other six nations. He doesn’t understand trade, he doesn’t understand economics, and other nations do understand that they have to cut the U.S. out of the picture until the U.S. cuts Trump out of the presidency.
Of course this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this play out. When Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Iran deal earlier this year, Iran and various U.S. allies all agreed to keep the deal going without Trump’s involvement. To date, Trump still has yet to state what he actually wants from Iran, because he has no clue. The Paris climate accord has also continued unabated worldwide since Trump’s withdrawal. In the long term, the U.S. will always have a seat at the world table – but not until Donald Trump is gone.
