Donald Trump looks away as his wife Melania speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G7 summit, Biarritz, France, August 26, 2019 (AP)

TUESDAY FEATURE

EA on talkRADIO: Macron, Trump, Johnson, and the G7 Summit — From Climate Change to Iran to No Deal Brexit

UPDATE, 1445 GMT:

Journalists are noting that, in January, Donald Trump’s Doral, Florida resort — which Trump is promoting as the site of the 2020 G7 summit — settled with a business traveler who sued over attacks on his back, face, and arms by bed bugs.

New Jersey insurance executive Eric Linder said he woke up from a night’s sleep at the resort in March 2016 with dozens of bites.

Trump tried to wish away the story on Twitter:

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Eclipsed by French President Emmanuel Macron, the host of the G7 summit in Biarritz, Donald Trump skips a meeting on climate change and puts out confusing statements on key issues — but gathers himself to promote his Florida golf resort as the location for next year’s G7.

The other leaders of the G7 — France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, and the UK — closed the summit with a declaration on trade, Iran, Ukraine, conflict in Libya, and protests in Hong Kong.

Macron had said before the summit that there would be no joint communiqué because of Trump’s opposition to any mention of climate change. But the declaration implicitly knocked back the US Administration, after the French President said he had given up hope of Trump’s coooperation. So did the call for dialogue to maintain the Iranian nuclear deal and the reference to Ukraine, with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and military intervention supporting separatists in the east of the country.

Trump agitated at the summit for the re-admission of Russia to a G8, after Moscow was ejected over President Vladimir Putin’s aggressive interventions through military action, interference in other countries’ elections, and cyber-operations. But Trump’s support of his Russian friend was rebuffed firmly by France, Germany, and Canada.

Blocked by Macron from a showpiece session where he could proclaim his mastery of a successful US economy, setting an example for the rest of the world, Trump responded with pique and bluster on Sunday.

He skipped the leaders’ meeting on climate change, giving the excuse that bilateral sessions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ran late — even though both Merkel and Modi attended the discussion which included attention to fires across Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

A Businessman Promoting His Resort

Instead, Trump spent much of his time extolling his Doral resort in Florida. At the beginning of the discussion with Merkel, he said:

It’s got tremendous acreage, many hundreds of acres, so we can handle whatever happens. People are really liking it and plus it has buildings that have 50 to 70 units. And so each delegation can have its own building.

We haven’t found anything that could even come close to competing with it.

At a press conference after a joint appearance with Macron, Trump knocked back reporters’ queries that he would profit from hosting the summit. First he made up the statistic, “Probably it’ll cost me anywhere from $3 to $5 billion to be President”:

The only thing I care about is this country. Couldn’t care less, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it….I used to get a lot of money to make speeches. Now I give speeches all the time. You know what I get? Zippo, and that’s good.

And I did a lot of great jobs and great deals that I don’t do anymore. I don’t want to do them because the deals I’m making are great deals for the country. And that’s, to me, much more important.

Then he returned to promotion of Doral: “We have many hundreds of acres, so that in terms of parking, in terms of all of the things that you need. The ballrooms are among the biggest in Florida and the best. It’s brand new and my people wanted it.”

He repeated, “I’m not going to make any money. I don’t want to make money. I don’t care about making money.”

Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez confirmed that the Secret Service informed the Doral Police Department two months ago that the resort was among a dozen potential venues for the G7 summit: “It gives us great exposure, to have an event of this magnitude.”

But analysts noted issues over the summer heat, humidity, and possible hurricanes in south Florida, and over security at the Doral resort, near one of the busiest intersections in the city. Last year, an armed man opened fire on police officers inside the hotel lobby.

Meanwhile, the resort’s net operating income has fallen almost 69% in two years.

Ethics lawyer Deepak Gupta summarized Trump’s conflict of interest:

Trump would basically be compelling foreign governments to spend money at his personal resort, while promoting the resort on the world stage.

That’s inconsistent with both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. Trump’s use of his official position for personal gain is so blatant and pervasive that I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like it from a previous US President.

The Trump Organization’s properties, including its hotels in New York City and Washington, have benefited from spending by delegations from at least 22 foreign governments include January 2017. The exact amount is unknown, because of the Organization’s refusal to provide records.

Struggling Over His Trade War and Iran

At the press conference, Trump struggled to recover his trade war with China, after his Saturday statement — apparently from confusion rather than any statement of policy — that he was having “second thoughts” about Friday’s escalation and imposition of tariffs on all $600 billion of Chinese goods entering the US.

He rambled, with misleading claims:

China’s been taking out of this country, $500 plus billion dollars a year for many, many years. Many, many years. It was time to stop….

I think they want to make a deal and I think they should make a deal and I think if they don’t make a deal it’s going to be very bad for China. And I very much appreciate the fact that they came out last night, very late last night, and they said they want to make a deal, they want it to be under calm circumstances. It was a little different kind of a statement. I thought it was a beautiful statement. I thought it indicated a lot.

The burst of words failed to resolve Trump’s earlier claim that the Chinese had called him to discuss a revival of trade talks. Beijing’s Foreign Ministry denied the assertion.

Meanwhile, Macron was confirming his leadership on the Iran issue, continuing to relegate Trump’s emphasis on “maximum pressure” after a surprise appearance by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the summit.

Caught off-guard by Zarif’s presence on Saturday — with the Foreign Minister meeting other G7 delegations but refusing to sit down with the Americans — Trump struggled with lines between Iran as the “number one terror state in the world”, the false claim that the Obama Administration “gave” Tehran $150 billion under the 2015 nuclear deal, and his desire for a face-to-face meeting with Iranian leaders.

I have had good feelings about Iran. I have good feelings that it’ll work. I know many Iranians living in New York City, I have many friends from Iran, they’re incredible people, incredible people. The last thing I’d like to see is a big problem, but we have to do what we have to do.

Macron stepped in to reaffirm his initiative, part of attempted mediation between Iran and the US since early July: “To be very clear. We are part of JCPOA [the nuclear agreement]. We decided to remain in this deal….That’s why we want the different parties to move.”

Trump, who withdrew from the deal in May 2018, tried to have the last word: “I have to say, the JCPOA was a bad deal, should not have been entered into. A lot of things could’ve happened that would’ve been much different.”