A remarkable photo released by the German government overnight has painted a picture of the G-7 divide and provided a visual insight to high level political discourse, with Chancellor Angela Merkel - backed by other G-7 members - effectively standing over an obstinate US President Donald Trump.
The photo was taken by German government photographer Jesco Denzel and released overnight by Steffen Seibert , a spokesman for the chancellor.
The photo shows Trump sitting arms folded looking back up at Merkel, as the German leader glares at him, backed by a less-than-impressed arms folded Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and an animated French leader Emmanuel Macron, addressing Trump.
Trump is at logger-heads with the other G-7 members after refusing to back down on steel tarrifs during talks in Canada, while also refusing to sign a joint letter at the end of talks, outlining the agreed positions of all members.
Trump brands Trudeau as a back-stabber unworthy of President Donald Trump's time
Upon Trump's return to Washington, the White House escalated its trade tirade and levelled more withering and unprecedented criticism today against Justin Trudeau a back-stabber unworthy of President Donald Trump's time.
"There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said in an interview nationally broadcast in the United States.
Canada's foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said her country "does not conduct its diplomacy through ad hominem attacks".
The verbal volleys by Navarro and Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, picked up where Trump left off yesterday afternoon with a series of tweets from Air Force One en route to Singapore for his nuclear summit tomorrow with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.
Kudlow suggested Trump saw Trudeau as trying to weaken his hand before that meeting, saying the president won't "let a Canadian prime minister push him around. ... Kim must not see American weakness".
Just as the Trudeau-hosted Group of Seven meeting of the world's leading industrialised nations had seemed to weather Trump's threats of a trade war, the president backed out of the group's joint statement that Trudeau said all the leaders had come together to sign.
Trump called Trudeau "dishonest & weak" after Trudeau said at a news conference that Canada would retaliate for new US tariffs.
Trudeau didn't respond to questions about Trump when the prime minister arrived at a Quebec City hotel overnight for meetings with other world leaders, though Freeland later told reporters that "we don't think that's a useful or productive way to do business".
A Trudeau spokesman, Cameron Ahmad, said yesterday night that Trudeau "said nothing he hasn't said before - both in public and in private conversations" with Trump.
Trudeau said he had reiterated to Trump, who left the G-7 meeting before it ended, that tariffs would harm industries and workers on both sides of the US-Canada border.
Trudeau told reporters that imposing retaliatory measures "is not something I relish doing" but that he wouldn't hesitate to do so because "I will always protect Canadian workers and Canadian interests."
"Navarro, the Trump trade adviser, said his harsh assessment of what "bad faith" Trudeau did with "that stunt press conference" on Sunday "comes right from Air Force One.
He said Trump did the courtesy to Justin Trudeau to travel up to Quebec for that summit.
He had other things, bigger things, on his plate in Singapore. ... He did him a favor and he was even willing to sign that socialist communique.
And what did Trudeau do as soon as the plane took off from Canadian airspace? Trudeau stuck our president in the back.
"That will not stand."
Kudlow, in a separate TV appearance, said Trudeau was "polarising" and "really kind of stabbed us in the back."
The Canadian leader pulled a "sophomoric political stunt for domestic consumption," Kudlow said, that amounted to "a betrayal."
"Don't blame Trump. It was Trudeau who started blasting Trump after he left, after the deals had been made."
Kudlow said Trump won't let people "take pot shots at him" and that Trudeau "should've known better."
But the criticism left a former Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, stumped.
"I don't understand the obsession with trade relations with Canada," he said, given that Canada is the biggest single buyer of American goods and services in the world.
From promoting democracy and to fighting terrorism, "we're on the same page. We're the closest partners in the world and you don't want to see a dispute over one particular issue poison everything."
Trudeau had said Canadians "are polite, we're reasonable, but also we will not be pushed around."
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