Donald Trump will arrive in France on Monday for a three‑day G7 summit, where the US president is set to sit down with fellow leaders he has recently mocked, belittled or openly attacked, including French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The gathering of the Group of Seven nations will be held against the backdrop of a fragile deal to end the nearly four‑month war in the Middle East, and many diplomats already expect an awkward, if not icy, atmosphere in the conference rooms.
For context, the summit comes just after Washington and Tehran agreed a deal to halt the conflict that has rattled global markets and pushed up inflation across major economies. According to the Associated Press, the G7 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US are expected to devote much of their time to the Iran agreement, China’s trade policy and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. All three topics would be tricky at the best of times. They become a minefield when the most powerful person in the room has spent months taking public shots at almost everyone else at the table.
The Guardian, citing reports from Washington, has reported that Donald Trump is unlikely to land in an especially conciliatory mood. Several G7 capitals opposed his handling of the Iran war and declined to join an earlier US plan to force open the Strait of Hormuz, the key oil shipping route. Trump, by nature, does not hide a grudge. The question in Biarritz is how much of that mood will leak into the official sessions, and how much will surface in off‑the‑cuff remarks or social media blasts.
Donald Trump And Keir Starmer: ‘No Winston Churchill’
Tensions with Britain have been building for weeks. To recall, Trump lashed out at Prime Minister Keir Starmer after London refused a US request to let American military jets use a British base in the Indian Ocean during operations against Iran. In his characteristically cutting style, Trump told reporters he was ‘not happy with the UK’ and dismissed Starmer as ‘no Winston Churchill’.
On one level, it was just another Trump line, but it landed hard in Westminster. Churchill is political holy ground in British discourse, and having an American president reach for that comparison to swipe at a sitting prime minister is the sort of stuff that sticks. Starmer, for his part, has tried to keep the focus on legal advice and British parliamentary oversight, but that won’t erase the sting when the two men appear side by side for the mandatory G7 ‘family photo’.
Diplomats in London and Washington will now be watching closely for any sign that the public insult spills into policy. Security co‑operation over Iran, the wider Middle East and even Ukraine could all be affected if the personal frost does not thaw at least a little in France.
Donald Trump’s Jabs At Canada And Talk Of A ‘51st State’
Relations with Canada are hardly warmer. Trump has repeatedly grumbled about what he calls unfair trade imbalances with America’s northern neighbour and has flirted in public with the notion that Canada could become the ‘51st state’. It is hard to overstate how badly that sort of talk goes down in Ottawa.
In one Truth Social post, Trump joked that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney might one day become the ‘future Governor of Canada’, a line that sounded more like a punchline than a compliment. The remark came after Carney used a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos to warn of a ‘rupture in the world order’, comments widely read as a veiled critique of Trump‑era foreign policy, even though the US president was not mentioned by name.
Officials have not forgotten that exchange. Canadian aides will be doing their best to keep the summit focused on Ukraine, trade and climate, but with Trump in the room, there is always the risk that a throwaway joke becomes the headline.
Mocking Macron’s Marriage Before Landing In France
The most personal intervention, however, has been reserved for the G7 host. At an Easter lunch at the White House, Trump reportedly mocked Emmanuel Macron’s marriage while criticising France for resisting deeper involvement in US and Israeli military action against Iran.
As recounted in US media reports, Trump brought up a viral video from the previous year showing Macron’s wife, Brigitte, apparently pushing her husband’s face away as they disembarked from a plane during a trip to Vietnam. Trump told guests that Macron’s ‘wife treats him extremely badly’ and quipped that the French president was ‘still recovering from the right to the jaw’.
It is not standard practice, even in this more combative age, for a US president to riff on another leader’s domestic life, let alone their marriage, ahead of a major diplomatic summit. French officials have not publicly responded, which is telling in itself. The Élysée seems determined not to fuel the fire days before Macron has to greet Donald Trump on the red carpet.
Yet the comment hangs in the air. Macron, who prides himself on his public composure, now has to welcome a guest who has not only criticised his Iran policy but also mocked his relationship with his wife. Awkward barely covers it.
A Summit Loaded With Grudges
None of this means the G7 is doomed to fail. The club has survived plenty of bad blood before, and on Iran, Ukraine and China, the strategic overlap between members is still broad. The urgency of stabilising energy supplies and containing inflation gives everyone a strong push to at least find common language on key communiqués.
But it does mean that almost every bilateral Trump holds in France will come with extra baggage. Starmer arrives after being told he falls short of Britain’s wartime icon. Carney walks into a room where his host once joked about downgrading Canada’s sovereignty. Macron must chair a session while ignoring the fact his guest has been talking about his marriage behind his back.
For some leaders, the calculation will be simple: swallow the insults, lock in the policy gains, go home. For Trump, the calculation is usually different. He has always treated summits as stages, not seminars. If he feels slighted over Iran or the Strait of Hormuz, he has form for saying so, bluntly, in front of the cameras.
The result could be a meeting where the official agenda competes directly with the president’s running commentary. And if past experience is any guide, it will be the commentary that people remember.
Nothing is confirmed yet so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.
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