Donald Trump strikes a tough pose — but French President Emmanuel Macron out-maneuvered him at G7 summit, Biarritz, France, August 25, 2019

Bypassed by other leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France on issues such as climate change and Iran, Donald Trump puts out a series of contradictory statements about his trade war with China.

Advisors had hoped to feature Trump on Sunday as the leader of a flourishing US economy, presenting it as a model for the rest of the G7 and the world.

But the meeting never came off, leaving Trump’s staff to denigrate the host, French President Emmanuel Macron, for an agenda which dared give priority to “niche issues” such as climate change, health, and gender equality.

TrumpWatch, Day 947: Trump Plays Nice at G7 Summit, But US Officials Trash France

Macron took away the spotlight on Sunday with the surprise appearance of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for discussions of the 2015 nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew in May 2018, and the comprehensive US sanctions that were imposed last November.

The French President has positioned himself as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, speaking several times with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and hosting Zarif in Paris last week. The Iranians are offering to restore full compliance with the deal with the remaining 5+1 Powers (France, UK, Germany, China, and Russia), in return for an easing of the US sanctions.

Iran Daily, August 24: Zarif — “Constructive” Talks with France’s Macron

Zarif met with officials from the G7 members but pointedly refused to sit down with any of Trump’s delegation or to give Trump the photo opportunity which he has sought with Iran’s leaders, despite pursuing “maximum pressure” to break the Iranian economy.

The Americans were also caught off-guard by Macron’s declaration of a joint message to the Islamic Republic. Trump said he had not discussed any message, but did not object to Macron’s efforts. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said Trump was open to talks and “he would not set preconditions to those negotiations”.

Their position was further challenged when Trump’s call for re-admission of Russia to a G8 was firmly rebuffed, with France, Germany, and Canada rejecting the embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin after his annexation of Crimea, military intervention in eastern Ukraine, and cyber-warfare and interference in other countries’ elections.

A “Sheep-Like” Objection to the Trade War

Trump’s staff had opened the day with a successful meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose rise to power was propelled in part by Trump advisors.

Trump praised Johnson as a leader to deliver the UK’s Brexit departure from the European Union, which the Trump camp is hoping to weaken. He eagerly retweeted his message deriding Theresa May, the British Prime Minister until May, for being “weak” with the EU.

But Johnson offered a small signal of trouble to come as he dared to offer a muted challenge to Trump’s tariffs on China: “Just to register a faint, sheep-like note of our view on the trade war – we are in favor of trade peace on the whole….The UK has profited massively in the last 200 years from free trade.”

Trump tried to recover, “How about the last three years?”

Trump continued to praise Johnson despite the “sheep-like” resistance, but his advisors were so shaken that they even lied about the on-camera encounter.

Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, insisted that Johnson’s “we don’t like tariffs” had been “taken out of context”: “I’m not sure what you just played was something from that meeting. It sounds to me like it came after the meeting.”

EA on CNN: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and the “G5+2” Summit

Confusion Over China

Then Trump got himself into a day-long tangle over the issue.

On Friday, during a Twitter meltdown over his “enemies” — Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell and Chinese President Xi Jinping — Trump raised tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese products from 25% to 30%.

He revoked a delay or suspension on duties on 2/3rds of the remaining $350 billion of Beijing’s products, saying that all would now be subject to a 15% tariff.

TrumpWatch, Day 946: Trump’s Twitter Friday — More Tariffs on China, Attacks on “Enemy” Federal Reserve
TrumpWatch, Day 936: Trump Delays New China Tariffs…So Stores Can Stock for Holidays

Asked by reporters if he was reconsidering his impulsive order, Trump responded, “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

The surprised journalists repeated the question. Trump said: “Might as well. Might as well….I have second thoughts about everything.”

Then, having denounced China’s Xi Jinping less than 48 hours earlier, he declared, “We’re getting along very well with China right now.”

Trump’s advisors scrambled to deal with the chaos of Trump’s Friday tweets against his apparent retreat.

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said Trump’s “answer has been greatly misinterpreted”, creating the rationale, “President Trump responded in the affirmative because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher.”

Kudlow took up the line in a CNN interview:

That was his thought. It somehow got misinterpreted, I’m not sure he heard the question altogether, it was a very crowded room, I was there. That was his thought, that he needed to go higher.

(In fact, the room was relatively quiet, as photographers were not taking pictures and no one other than Trump and his questioners were speaking.)

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin echoed, “His only second thought…was maybe he should raise tariffs more. The deficit is getting bigger and the president is determined that we have free and fair and reciprocal trade.”

The confusion overshadowed Trump’s attempt to present a big victory with an agreement for more US agricultural imports in Japan.

Trump told reporters that Japanese Shinzo Abe agreed to buy “hundreds of millions of dollars of corn” that had gone to China before the trade war.

Abe was more cautious: “We still have some remaining work that has to be done at the working level, namely finalizing the wording of the trade agreement and also finalizing the content of the agreement itself”

But he said that he hoped the agreement would be confirmed at the end of September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting.

“They’ve Got It All Wrong”

At the end of Sunday, Trump tried to regain the Twitter initiative, with his usual tactic of blasting the press:

But he was still having to fight off ridicule over an earlier tweet which rewrote the narrative of the G7 developments — including the showcase of his supposed economic achievements which never happened.