Donald Trump Caused A Scene At The G7's Women's Empowerment Event & Really, Dude?
It's not a day in President Donald Trump's universe if he is not the center of attention, which was definitely apparent during the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada over the weekend of June 8. Donald Trump showed up late to the G7's women's empowerment event, which is shocking to absolutely no one. But I suspect that his reasoning for the rudeness is very, very petty.
On June 9, Trump decided to show up late to a morning breakfast meeting was intended to focus on women's empowerment, organized by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. According to The Cut, when Trump showed up to the meeting partway through the remarks he was hounded by reporters and other members of the media, which caused a major ruckus. Trump missed Trudeau's introductory remarks all together, and arrived while council co-chair Isabelle Hudon, Canada's ambassador to France, was speaking.
It's impossible for Trump to enter a room without causing a disturbance, seeing as he is the President of the United States and all. Apparently the noise of the cameras from the press drowned out Hudon's remarks completely, which is just so incredibly rude. It's already bad enough that Trump showed up late in the first place, but to also completely hog all of the attention due to him being late just makes it a whole lot worse.
The rest of the world leaders in attendance were definitely not amused — specifically Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel. Once Trump finally got to his seat, Merkel shot him a look that just screams "Really, dude?" If I were in her position I would have definitely done the same thing.
Ugh, the audacity. Also, is anyone surprised that the event he showed up late to just happens to be a meeting that's focused on female empowerment? I am definitely not at all surprised, though. Trump doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to respect for women. He's called women pigs and said you have to "treat them like sh*t", and, on the now infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape, bragged about groping women. The president is clearly not exactly the poster boy for women's empowerment.
This wasn't the only example of Trump just being downright disrespectful to the U.S. allies. After Trump left the summit early on June 9, Trudeau said in a press conference that it was "kind of insulting" that Trump had imposed tariffs on Canada for steel and aluminum on May 31. Trump increased the tariffs to 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum, and included Canada on the list of nations hit by the tax hike.
Imposing new taxes on a country that's one of the U.S.'s closest allies is a bit shady, so Trudeau's comments are not out of left field. Trudeau also added that he will impose retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., saying that Canada "will not be pushed around."
Trump was clearly offended by the comments, because when he got wind of what Trudeau had said he sent out multiple tweets attacking the prime minister. Trump said that Trudeau was "meek and mild" during the time they spent together at the summit, and called his comments at the news conference "Very dishonest & weak."
Trump also refused to endorse the joint statement created by the other G7 world leaders as a means of further attacking Trudeau, effectively insulting every country that signed off on the document. Trump announced his decision in a tweet (of course) which stated,
Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!
Just because you're upset with one person about some remarks they made during a news conference doesn't mean that you have the right to turn your back on all of the nations that were in attendance at the summit. In a statement released by his office, French President Emmanuel Macron clapped back, saying that “International cooperation cannot depend on fits of anger or little words. Let us be serious and worthy of our people.”
Trump clearly just cannot take any criticism, which doesn't scream "effective world leader" to me. Hopefully Trump is saving his proper diplomatic chops for the upcoming meeting he has with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Hopefully.
