As President Trump left his first G7 summit in Sicily back in 2017, he sounded triumphant.
"We have been gone close to nine days," he said in a speech, recapping a trip that ended with the G7. "I think we hit a home run no matter where we are."
But at least one of the G7 leaders who had spent time negotiating with Trump saw it differently. Trump had frustrated Germany's then-chancellor Angela Merkel during the G7 — and when she returned to her country, she said at a political rally that alliances were fraying.
"The times when we could completely rely on others, they are over to a certain extent. I have experienced this in the last few days," Merkel said.
With his "America First" world view, Trump brought friction and even chaos to meetings of the G7, the group of advanced economies that first came together 50 years ago to deal with global economic problems.
This year's G7, which starts Monday, has the potential for more acrimony. It comes after several months in which Trump has imposed tariffs on all of his fellow G7 members (and most other countries as well), not to mention threatening to annex Canada, the host of this year's summit.
That said, there may be one less opportunity for disagreement this year. There will be no communique — the lengthy joint statement that leaders traditionally hammer out by the end of the meeting, laying out everything they agreed to.
"In place of a comprehensive communique, G7 leaders will release standalone joint leaders' statements on various topics," said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about private multilateral deliberations. "This is functionally similar and the preference of our Canadian hosts."
Policy differences and personal attacks
Back in 2017, at Trump's first G7, negotiators initially expected that Trump would be persuadable on a wide range of issues, including climate change, and trade and development efforts for poor countries, said Creon Butler, who was on the UK's negotiation team at the time.
"It became clearer and clearer that the gap between, if you like, President Trump's view of how things should be taken forward and the other members became very wide," Butler said.
The communique that year singled out the United States, stating that on climate change, the U.S. was "not in a position to join the consensus."
And indeed, just days after, Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
In retrospect, Trump's intransigence at that first G7 was not surprising. Again and again, he has rejected multilateral approaches to issues like trade and security.
In 2018, an iconic photo — and a mean tweet
At the 2018 summit, an iconic photo captured the tensions. Merkel loomed over a table confronting Trump, who sat impassively, arms crossed, as other leaders and aides looked on.
That year, the conflict grew personal. At a press conference at the end of the summit — also in Canada — then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threatened to retaliate against U.S. tariffs.
"I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing," Trudeau said, "but it is something that we absolutely will do because Canadians – we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around."
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018
Trump quickly lashed out, tweeting that Trudeau was "dishonest" and "weak," and that he was instructing his team not to sign that year's joint statement.
Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow shortly thereafter expressed his fury on CBS' "Face the Nation," saying that Trudeau not only "betrayed Trump" but also "betrayed the whole G7."
Complaints about overreach
In 2019, the White House laid out its own vision for the G7: to rein in what it saw as mission creep. Ahead of that summit, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Kudlow slammed conversations about tourism and social justice as being full of "politically correct bromides."
Kelly Ann Shaw, who was Trump's lead negotiator at that G7, said she thought there was too much overreach for the summit, and that created tension.
"As the US lead negotiator, I was involved in these discussions trying to push other governments to say, 'Why don't we just focus on real, meaningful outcomes?'" Shaw recalled. "We're just using words for the sake of using words.'"
That summit was Trump's last G7 for his first term. The COVID pandemic delayed the 2020 meeting, which the United States was supposed to host, and then Trump said he wanted to delay it until after the election, which he lost.
What to expect this year
Ahead of this year's G7, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney released a list of broad priorities he hopes to focus on at the summit. Among the few specifics he listed are improving responses to wildfires, building infrastructure, and supporting higher-paying jobs.
For Shaw's part, despite her criticisms, she still thinks the G7 could make a difference on some important issues.
"I think when it comes to the economy, when it comes to the global financial system, when it comes to issues related to China, increasingly things like AI, and of course, what's happening in Ukraine, those are issues leaders should be spending their time on," Shaw said.
But tackling those kinds of sensitive issues requires strong international bonds, which may be difficult with Trump involved, says Butler, the former UK negotiator.
"For all of that to work, you need a high level of trust, and a number of things that the president has done really undermines that trust — threatening to take over Canada, let's say," Butler said.
Trump leaves for the G7 on Sunday. The White House says he plans to hold a series of one-on-one meetings with the leaders there, but has yet to lay out his broader goals.
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