The Times (UK) confirmed the golf cart episode, “The distance between Donald Trump and his G7 partners was spelled out dramatically today when Theresa May and the leaders of Italy, France, Germany, Japan and Canada strolled the streets of Taormina, Sicily – while he followed in a golf cart”.
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Diplomats from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States worked late into the night to agree on the final communique, which was expected to be little more than six pages long, against 32 pages a year ago.
“They walked the 700 yards from the traditional G7 group photo, taken at a Greek amphitheatre, to a piazza in the hilltop town, but Mr Trump stayed behind until he could take a seat in the electric vehicle”, The Times reported.
Before the conversation between Trump and the other G7 leaders, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni noted that all the other countries had confirmed “total agreement” to the pact, while the United States commitment was an “open question”.
“President Trump should join these leaders in protecting Americans from the mounting impacts of climate change and reaping the economic benefits of the clean energy revolution”, Meyer said.
Macron was more diplomatic, claiming to see signs of progress and describing Trump as “pragmatic and ready to work”. “I think he is leaning to understand the European position”, Cohn told reporters.
Down to the final day of his lengthy first worldwide trip, President Donald Trump will lift off for Washington having rattled some allies and reassured others, returning to a White House that sits under a cloud of scandal.
US President Donald Trump reaffirmed, Sunday, America’s “unbreakable bond with the State of Israel” during a speech to US troops stationed at the Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, Italy.
He said the president, who has dismissed global warming as a “hoax”, would make a final decision when he returned home, but stressed that he would put economic development first.
“But for European allies across the continent, it’s creating a tremendous amount of uncertainty and insecurity.”Another US foreign policy expert, Derek Chollet, says it was no coincidence that the mood of the trip “changed dramatically when Trump left the controlled confines of the Middle East”.
But he also held one-on-one meetings with the leaders of Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. No, he didn’t repeat his description of the Belgian capital as a “hellhole”, but the contrast between Trump’s warm embrace of Saudi autocrats and his awkward interaction with the democratically elected European leaders was hard to miss.
Gentiloni said climate was “not a minor point” and that he hoped the United States would decide “soon and well” because the Paris accords “need the contribution of the United States”. Knowing the president’s receptivity to flattery, the Saudis pulled out all the stops and gave Trump a red-carpet welcome, a horse-borne escort on his trip to the royal palace and a lavish party that included a traditional sword dance.
Yet the popular frustration and resurgent nationalism that brought Trump to power is not limited to the U.S. There were significant changes in tone where the seven leaders could agree. “We did a lot of great stuff”, she said.
Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, negotiated the deal and agreed reduce the country’s emissions by between 26 and 28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels.
– Cecilia Vega (@CeciliaVega)Not a news conference!
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The president recalled the terrorist attacks in Manchester and Egypt that targeted innocent women and children as well as a suicide bombing in Indonesia that killed three police officers. His administration has taken particular aim at Germany, accusing it of depressing the value of the euro to make its exports more competitive and to undercut US goods. Cohn stressed Friday that the president was simply being critical of the US trade imbalance with Germany. I am very proud of him.
