Donald Trump.
For the first time after years – perhaps decades – the G7 will not be much more than a catwalk with opportunities and generic statements, at least for the press. This time the general perception is that it will really discuss Deep, existential issuesfor the West and for the global order. Two wars burn in the center of the world: The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the clash Between Israel and Iranwhich transformed the Middle East into a permanent battlefield. In this frame, Donald Trump’s return to the great table is not a detail: it is a geopolitical earthquake.
In 2018, in Charlevoix, Canada, Trump sautéed the summitby invoking the return of Russia to the Club of the Seven and platitally leaving the scene after having imposed duties on steel and aluminum to the Canadians. Today, while recurring in the Canadian city Kananaskis (in Alberta not far from Calgary, where the invernal Olympics were held), Those fractures have not welded: they enlarged. Trump wants to reduce the global military role of the United States, dismantle alliances, challenge the international liberal order that his predecessors had built after the Second World War. Or at least he tries. In the meantime, Israel hit Tehran With an unprecedented military action, aiming at the top of the regime and nuclear infrastructure. The risk of a not only regional war It has become real. Yet when they asked him if he was doing something to stop the escalation, Trump replied with his usual fatalism: “Sometimes they have to face each other. We will see what happens. Maybe there will be an agreement».
In Trumpian language, the agreement is a permanent illusion, he wrote the New York Times. But in the meantime his advisors repeat that he has a Deadline: Ninety commercial agreements in ninety days. It is his mantra. Too bad that, after some facade agreements with the United Kingdom and China, The real negotiations are stalled. And his favorite weapon, the duties, is now under judgment in the federal courts. If you don’t come results, The White House could still raise the mailunleashing new turbulence in global markets. His allies know it. AND This time they don’t delude themselves anymore. The Canadians have already made it known that There will be no final joint press release: too many divergences, too strong the suspicion that Trump denies him, as he did in 2018. After all, This G7 is the funeral of the old idea of the West. The one based on common values, shared institutions, a mutual trust that has dissolved between wars, populisms and vintage changes.
The tear is also consumed on Ukraine. Trump is increasingly hostile to a prolonged commitment in the conflictwhile European leaders compact around Zelensky, also present at the top. The Ukrainian president is not just a symbol: it is the Tornasole map of Atlantic loyalty. And the fact that his cause is now more supported by Rome, Paris and Berlin who says a lot from Washington on who keeps the very idea of Europe standing. And then there is Russia. Trump continued to speak in Putin even during the war. AND He accused Kiev of starting the conflict. But its goal is not peace: it is the systematic breakage of all previous balances. The G7, born as an economic summit between industrialized democracies, It is today a geopolitical arenawhere they confront each other Two opposite visions of the world: cooperation against nationalism, multilateralism against isolationism, diplomacy against brute force. This time, souvenir photos may not be enough.
