CLIMATE CHANGE/FOREIGN POLICY/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Through marathon meetings and dinners at the Group of 20 summit, various world leaders sought to coax America’s new president to accept core tenets of the internationalist order they embrace, including commitment to free trade and tough environmental regulation.
He barely budged. In his second foreign trip, President Donald Trump largely held firm to the nationalist principles that were central to his campaign identity, suggesting that the America First doctrine that underpins his foreign policy is more durable than some of his European counterparts had hoped.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking Saturday at the close of the summit, said the ideological gulf has proved tough to bridge. Talking about the back-and-forth with the Trump administration over the summit’s joint statement, the German chancellor said: ‘The negotiations on the climate issue reflected dissent—everyone against the United States of America. And that the negotiations on the trade issue were especially tough was also a result of the United States taking certain positions.’
Still bristling over Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, one French official said that an aim in drafting the joint statement was to ensure that the U.S. ‘is clearly identified as being alone.’
If anything, Mr. Trump’s two forays overseas have shown that some leaders are bending toward his positions, not the reverse.”
-Peter Nicholas, “Trump’s ‘America First’ Policy Proves to Be an Immovable Object at G-20,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 9, 2017 12:13pm