Meanwhile, back to G7, the White House has published a video of the moment Trump arrived in the room for this morning’s session –. told other leaders “I am the boss.”
In another very normal Trump diplomacy moment. the US president is now telling reporters that the Iran deal is not really final yet.
“It’s not final. It’s a memorandum of understanding,. if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head.
If I don’t like it. if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, okay, because they’ve misbehaved for 47 years.”
He also says the Iranians “laughed at Obama” and added they “said he is a stupid son of a bitch.”
Make of that what you will.
But notably Trump. who occassionally enjoys immitating Emmanuel Macron’s French accent in English, is now going out of his way to praise the French leader for the G7 summit.
He says “it has been a great summit and France has done a fantastic job.”
“ President Macron has been really, he’s really done a great job.
It’s been very well received. Everybody here has been, I don’t know if they’ve been happy, some are not doing so well,. some are doing very well, but they’ve done a beautiful job.”
Other than that. Trump is raving about his Iran deal, claiming he stopped “a worldwide depression” that some “stupid people” advocated for.
He says the strait of Hormuz is “already partially opened”. “it’s going to be opening up soon in full over the next day or two.”
I will leave the details of that for my colleagues over on the Middle East blog.
Trump says he will host a press conference at the end of the G7 summit around 4pm local time (3pm UK). before travelling to Paris for a formal dinner at the Palace of Versailles.
He says he will be discussing the Iran deal, among other things.
Put that in your calendar then. We will cover it live here.
Meanwhile, the US president, Donald Trump, is now taking part in bilateral talks with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
They are speaking with reporters, so I will keep an eye on lines on Europe and Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered a pretty diplomatic, but positive, take on the G7 discussions on Ukraine.
In a post on X, he said:
“The G7 Summit in France delivered important results for Ukraine. Most importantly, we agreed on additional strengthening of Ukraine’s air defense. There will be new steps to put pressure on Russia over its war – pressure for the sake of peace. Our partners will ensure support for our defense and energy resilience.
It is important that we have a shared understanding of the main challenges and concrete steps to respond to them. Our global unity is truly reducing Russia’s ability to continue this insane and criminal aggression against Ukraine. I thank everyone who is helping us!”
This has got to be my favourite photo of Trump at the G7 summit so far.
Sums the event up nicely, really.
The Italian press has been keeping a close eye on Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni at the G7.
The pair had a falling out in April for two reasons: Italy’s refusal to support the US-Israeli war in Iran. then Trump’s extraordinary broadside against Pope Leo in reaction to the pontiff’s condemnation of the war.
But relations appear to have begun thawing in Evian.
As they met on Tuesday, Trump said “you abandoned me”, and Meloni responded: “That’s not true, we’ve always been friends.”
She later told reporters that “things went well with Trump” after the G7’s first official round of talks. The pair will reportedly meet again on the sidelines.
Before the fallout, Meloni had nurtured good relations with Trump, mostly rooted in shared nationalistic rhetoric,. was the only European leader invited to attend his inauguration as US president.
Meanwhile, back to G7, the White House has published a video of the moment Trump arrived in the room for this morning’s session –. told other leaders “I am the boss.”
Rutte also gets asked if Trump is moving closer to Ukraine’s position on ending the war.
He says, obviously, he has “always been positive about the US position,”. praises Trump for “breaking the deadlock” last year.
He says the situation on the battlefield “has changed somewhat” as “Russia is not making advances at the moment.”
He says “Ukraine is really doing better” now, but ending the war needed “two to tango,”. he says Putin does not seem to be ready to join talks yet.
“And here the American president is, I think, playing a very positive role now for a year. a half in trying to get this war done, he wants to get it done, and I completely support him.”
And that ends the presser.
Rutte gets asked about potential reopening of channels with Russia, as advocated by some leaders, including Finland’s Alexander Stubb.
He says “clearly it is something debated among allies,” primarily through the EU,. it’s not something that came up at the Nato level so far.
“It’s really a discussion playing out in the EU at the moment,. of course we are following that, and will be supportive wherever we can.”
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