Wrecking Ball Trump Makes the G-7 More Necessary
The upcoming conclave in Canada may be the rare space to find common ground, even as the forum itself is looking increasingly outmoded.
A seat at a too-small table: US President Donald Trump and other G-7 leaders at the 2019 summit in Biarritz, France.
Photographer: Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP/Getty ImagesA member of the Biden administration once described the Group of Seven industrialized countries—the US, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, the UK and Japan—as “a steering committee for the world’s most advanced democracies.” The three-day meeting of G-7 leaders, which gets underway in Canada on June 15, is unlikely to produce such bold pronouncements.
In place of the more or less amicable familial gatherings of recent years, the upcoming conclave feels like a last resort for finding common ground in a world where President Donald Trump keeps describing the host country as a potential 51st state for the US, where the West represents a dwindling share of the global economy and where businesses and investors are eager for any sign of US trade deescalation with the European Union and Japan. (The UK, for its part, is still waiting on actual implementation of its recent tariff deal with Trump.)