Trump’s beefing with allies goes under microscope at G7

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President Trump is slated to come face-to-face with traditional U.S. allies next week as the Group of Seven (G7) nations convene in Évian-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, France, amid simmering tensions between the U.S. leader and a number of member nations.

It’s been just a year since Trump abruptly left last year’s meeting in Alberta, Canada, saying he needed to head back to Washington to deal with the Israel-Iran conflict.

Now Trump finds himself in direct conflict with the Islamic Republic, which has become a source of tension with other G7 member countries whose consumers are facing higher energy prices as a result of the war.

The summit also comes shortly after the U.S. said it would reduce aircraft and warships it would provide in a security crisis impacting Europe, providing another source of tension.

France

Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron have enjoyed what many have referred to as a bromance in recent years, with Macron seeking Trump’s favor through a charm offensive during his first administration.

The French leader hosted his U.S. counterpart during France’s 2017 Bastille Day celebrations, while Trump hosted Macron for a state visit to the White House one year later.

Macron told Vanity Fair in 2018 that he “developed trust and respect” for Trump and that the two leaders talked on the phone on a regular basis. However, the relationship has since turned publicly frosty, with the two leaders trading barbs over a number of issues.

Last year, Macron slammed Trump’s 20 percent tariffs on the European Union as “brutal and unfounded.” He also pleaded with Trump to back down from his push to acquire Greenland, according to a private text message between the two leaders that Trump publicly shared in January.

Trump’s and Macron’s approaches to the war in Ukraine also differ.

Macron has joined forces with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to form a “coalition of the willing” aimed at supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia. Trump has taken a more neutral approach and has been criticized by some in Europe for doing so, as Paris and London see Russia, not Ukraine, as the instigator of the conflict.

The U.S. war in Iran stands to be one of the biggest points of contention between the two leaders.

Trump has publicly berated Macron and other U.S. allies for not doing more to assist the U.S. in helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said at a private event in April that Macron’s wife “treats him extremely badly,” referencing a video showing Brigitte Macron appearing to shove the French president on board the country’s presidential aircraft. The French president hit back at the remarks, calling them “neither elegant or up to the standard.”

With France’s role as this year’s presidency of the G7, Macron will have to walk a diplomatic tightrope. While the French leader will certainly have the alliance’s interests in mind, he will likely seek to avoid a repeat of last year’s meeting when Trump abruptly left the talks early.

United Kingdom

Like Macron, Starmer has been on the receiving end of Trump’s wrath over the war in Iran.

Starmer has consistently said the U.K. will not be drawn into the conflict, but he has worked side by side with Macron as co-chairs of the International Summit on the Strait of Hormuz, which is separate from the Trump administration’s efforts to reopen the waterway.

While Trump has referred to Starmer and other allies as cowardly for not helping the U.S. in the strait, Starmer has blamed the U.S. war in Iran, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine, for spiking global energy prices.

“I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy, because of the actions of Putin or Trump across the world,” the prime minister said in April, notably lumping Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin together.

Starmer’s relationship with Trump is also under strain amid Washington and London’s dispute over the Chagos Islands, where the two countries have shared a military base on the island of Diego Garcia.

According to an agreement reached in 2025 with the U.K., Mauritius would be given control of the islands in the Indian Ocean and the U.K. would be required to pay the country an average of $136 million to lease back Diego Garcia.

Trump initially backed the agreement but reversed course and criticized it in January, saying the U.K. was giving up control of the island for no reason. In April, the U.K. stopped its transfer of the islands to Mauritius amid Trump’s criticism. Reports surfaced last week the U.S. was considering purchasing the islands.

Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is arguably one of Trump’s most vocal critics in the international community as the neighboring countries have bitterly clashed during Trump’s second administration.

Carney raised eyebrows in January when he declared at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that there was a “rupture” in the post-Cold War world order as a result of U.S. policies under Trump. The U.S. president hit back in his own speech at the event, “declaring Canada lives because of the United States.”

Additionally, Trump and a number of his allies have also stirred backlash north of the border by repeatedly floating the idea of Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state.

Trade has proven to be the biggest point of contention between the two countries. Trump made headlines this week when he said in the Oval Office that he was not sure if he was going to renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, arguing that the U.S. does not need the two countries.

Earlier this year, Trump threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge — which will connect Detroit and Windsor, Ontario — in an effort to pressure Canada in trade talks.

Carney said this week that the bridge will soon open.

Germany

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Trump have clashed in recent months over the Iran war, further straining the relationship between Washington and Europe’s economic leader.

In April, Merz declared in public remarks that the U.S. was being “humiliated” by Iranian leadership during negotiations.

“The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result,” Merz said. “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible.”

Trump hit back on Truth Social, saying Merz should be focused on “fixing his broken country” and spend “less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat.”

Ahead of next week’s summit, Merz and Trump appear to be in a better place publicly.

Merz shared in a post on social platform X last month that he and Trump had “a good phone call” while Trump traveled back from his trip to China. Merz noted that two leaders agreed Iran must never have a nuclear weapon and that they discussed a peaceful solution to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The German leader also said the two coordinated their positions ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

Italy

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was long considered one of Trump’s conservative populist allies in Europe, but the president’s criticisms of Pope Leo XIV and the Iran war appear to have changed that.

Meloni hit Trump in a statement last month over his comments about the pope, calling his remarks “unacceptable”

“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he calls for peace and condemns every form of war,” she said.

Trump lashed out at Meloni in return, accusing her in an interview with an Italian publication of not caring if Iran has a nuclear weapon. The president also noted that the two have not spoken “in a long time.”

Japan

Out of all of the G7 leaders, Trump has the most publicly amicable relationship with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Takaichi, a conservative, was endorsed by Trump in the country’s snap elections earlier this year and met with Trump at the White House in March.

During the visit, Takaichi pledged to reach out to members of the international community in an effort to ensure that Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.

However, Trump has offered some criticism of Washington’s allies in the Pacific, including Japan, for not helping the U.S. enough in the Iran war.

“You know who else didn’t help us? Japan. We’ve got 50,000 soldiers in Japan to protect them from North Korea,” Trump said at a press conference in April.

Tags

Brigitte Macron

Emmanuel Macron

G7

G7 allies

Iran war

Keir Starmer

Mark Carney

Russia-Ukraine war

Trump administration

U.S.-Iran ceasefire

U.S.-Iran peace talks

Vladimir Putin

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