U.S. Thinks Macron Twisting G-7 to Hurt Trump, Win Favor at Home

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. officials charged that Emmanuel Macron is splicing this weekend’s G-7 meeting into niche issues designed to isolate and embarrass President Donald Trump, in what they say is a bid by the French president to boost his support at home.

Trump arrived in Biarritz, France, on Saturday and swiftly met with Macron over an impromptu lunch, with Trump saying, “Everybody’s getting along.” But behind the scenes, U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity say ties have been strained in the run-up to the summit -- an allegation French officials deny.

U.S. officials say Macron has built the agenda around a series of issues, such as climate change and inequality, that stray from the G-7’s founding nature as an economic bloc and are instead designed to play to Macron’s base.

These officials said France has ignored U.S. input on those issues and then blamed the U.S. for blocking consensus. They say the French have been difficult to deal with in encounters ahead of Trump’s arrival, and that the original summit schedule said little or nothing about trade and the global economy, only being changed after the American side complained.

A French official disputed that version of events and insisted that both trade and the global economy have been on the agenda since the first draft. France, too, believes these issues are the top priority of the global summit, another French official said.

As for whether a discussion of climate might embarrass Trump - who has pulled out of the Paris climate accord -- this official said the summit must confront the issue head on because it’s too great an issue to be ignored in this setting.

Relations have been difficult at every level as the U.S. worked with their French counterparts, from top aides to the advance staff doing logistics, the U.S. officials said. The French, however, said they detected no difficulties or tense relations with the U.S. in the run-up to the summit, just the usual disagreements as all sides hammer out the agenda.

The U.S. officials are concerned that the G-7, which the U.S. will host next year, is losing relevance and increasingly preoccupied by what the U.S. considers niche issues. Washington will try to steer talks over the summit to economic and security issues when it hosts the event, the officials said.

Even the lunch was a surprise, they say. Trump wasn’t scheduled to have a formal bilateral meeting with Macron. The pair arrived at the Hotel du Palais within a couple minutes of each other after Trump’s flight landed and Macron finished an address to the French people. According to French officials, Macron greeted Trump and Melania Trump and offered lunch to chat about Iran, trade Amazon and Ukraine, and Trump accepted.

--With assistance from Josh Wingrove.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Biarritz, France at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Gordon at cgordon39@bloomberg.net

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