WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is heading to France on Monday to meet with an ideologically diverse group of world leaders who have at least one thing in common: All have either found themselves the target of Trump’s ire, or have been forced to negotiate awkward moments with the U.S. leader.
Several of the G7 leaders have faced Trump’s wrath for questioning his war of choice with Iran. Trump has beefed with some over tariffs. And the leaders of Japan and Germany have endured sitting through clumsy asides by Trump about dark moments in their countries’ histories.
During three days of talks in the bucolic French Alps, the leaders are expected to discuss the newly minted agreement aimed at ending the Iran war, Chinese trade policy, and Russia’s war in Ukraine. It’s also a chance to take measure of their relationship with Trump at a moment when the U.S. leader seems more determined than ever to go it alone on matters of global consequence.
The dynamics of the summit are not unlike a family holiday gathering where “there’s an uncle you don’t quite like,” said Max Bergmann, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“And no one wants to have a confrontation, even if things get quite passive-aggressive at times,” Bergmann said. “But, you know, there’s always the possibility that things might snap, and it might get rather dramatic.”
Here’s a look at some of the notable moments of public friction and uncomfortable exchanges between Trump and his fellow G7 leaders.
Starmer is no Churchill in Trump’s eyes
Trump’s criticism of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has focused on the United Kingdom’s reluctance to assist U.S. military strikes on Iran, British immigration policies, and the country’s renewable energy strategies.
But his most cutting jab at Starmer came after the Labour Party leader initially declined to allow U.S. military jets to use a British base in the Indian Ocean for the bombardment of Iran. “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said of Starmer, comparing him unfavorably to Britain’s revered World War II-era prime minister.
Trump in the first days of the Iran war tore into the prime minister after the U.K. placed the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales on advanced readiness status to potentially deploy to the Middle East.
“We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!” Trump said on social media.
The prime minister who Trump likes to call governor
Trump has fumed about trade imbalances with Canada, frequently opines about annexing Canada and making it the “51st state,” and has taken to referring to Prime Minister Mark Carney as “governor.”
His sharpest rhetoric toward the leader of America’s northern neighbor came after Carney at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, condemned coercion by great powers on smaller countries without mentioning Trump’s name.
“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump said in his own remarks at Davos. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
Carney has tried to remain even-keeled over Trump’s jabs. The prime minister told reporters earlier this month that Trump was an “exceptionally active user of social media” and that he was not going to respond to everything he posts.
Trump mocks Macron’s marriage and questions France’s reliability
During an Easter lunch at the White House in April, Trump criticized France and other NATO countries’ resistance to assisting the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
In the midst of the aside, Trump referred to viral video footage from last year which captured Macron’s wife, Brigitte, appearing to push the French president’s face away as they were getting off a plane during a visit to Vietnam.
Trump told the audience that Brigitte treats Macron “extremely badly” and said that the French president was “still recovering from the right to the jaw.”
Macron afterward told reporters that the couple had been simply joking around and said Trump’s comments were “neither elegant nor appropriate.”
Trump regularly regales audiences with his prowess as a dealmaker by recounting conversations he’s had with Macron about trade irritants, mimicking Macron’s responses in an exaggerated accent. In Trump’s retelling, Macron always quickly capitulates.
The conservative premier who Trump suggests lacks courage
Until recently, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had been held in high regard by Trump.
In October, Trump was effusive in his praise of the conservative premier when world leaders gathered in Egypt for a summit to discuss post-war Gaza, calling her “a very successful, very successful politician” and “beautiful.”
But Trump has since changed his tune as Italy declined to assist the United States in the war against Iran and after the premier chastised Trump for feuding with Pope Leo XIV about the conflict.
“Do people like her? I can’t believe it,” Trump said of Meloni, to Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera. He added: “I thought she had courage. I was wrong.”
An awkward historical reference in the Oval Office
Trump hasn’t offered any direct criticism of Japan’s Sanae Takaichi since she took office in October.
But some of his commentary during Takaichi’s first White House visit left the prime minister in an awkward position.
When asked by a Japanese reporter why he didn’t tell allies in Europe and Asia before the U.S. attacked Iran, Trump casually invoked Pearl Harbor to defend his decision.
“Who knows better about surprise than Japan?” Trump said with Takaichi by his side. “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK?”
Trump’s remark surprised many people in Japan, who had grown accustomed to American presidents avoiding harsh discussion of Japan’s surprise strike on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Hawaii that pushed the U.S. into World War II. His predecessors have instead focused on deepening ties with Japan, which became an ally after the war.
Takaichi, a hard-line conservative, received a mix of praise and criticism at home for not reacting to the comments by Trump, letting them pass with a glance at her ministers seated nearby.
Chancellor’s Iran war criticism infuriated Trump
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz set off Trump in April when he posited the U.S. was “being humiliated” by Iran and criticized the U.S. for going into the war without any strategy, saying that also made it harder to end the conflict.
Trump hit back on social media the following day, saying Merz “should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy.”
Days later, the Pentagon announced it would pull some 5,000 U.S. troops out of Germany and Trump hinted he’d look to cut the U.S. military presence “a lot further.”
Trump also had an awkward exchange with Merz when the chancellor visited the White House last year on the eve of the solemn anniversary of D-Day, the start of Allied operations which led to the liberation of Western Europe, the defeat of Nazi Germany and end of World War II.
Merz noted the anniversary while making the case that the U.S. was once again in a position to help end a conflict with enormous stakes for Europe — Russia’s war against Ukraine — when Trump interjected that D-Day was “not a pleasant day for you.”
The chancellor reminded Trump that the day also marked the beginning of “the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship.”
Trump acknowledged that Merz had a point.
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Associated Press writer John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
