Trumps Second Trip To The EU and Russia
President Donald Trump returned from his overseas trip to Europe. This was Trumps Second Trip To The EU and Russia.
The trip was full of action. He flew to Warsaw, Poland and gave “a major speech,” and met Polish and Baltic leaders. He then headed to Hamburg, Germany, to attend the G20 meeting.
Here are the highlights of the trip.
1. Trump and Putin first meeting.
The peak of the trip. For the first time since he won the election, Trump sat in one room with Putin. Trump and Putin discussed several issues. Most notably the allegations that Russia hacked the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.
Putin and his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Trump agreed with Russia’s dismissing it as “fake news.” They said that Trump told them some in the U.S. had “exaggerated” Russia’s ability.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who was present at the meeting said the meeting was all about how the two nations can cooperate.
However, White House officials stated that Russia’s translation of Trump’s “agreement” was not accurate. Maybe the two translators who were present misinterpreted Trump’s meaning.
2. Trump’s Speech in Warsaw’s symbolic Krasinski Square.
He gave his speech before an eager, friendly crowd who were listening to every word he said. This speech was an appetizer for the next-day G20 summit.
In the speech, the president bluntly criticized the two former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. He also blamed the U.S. intelligence community, deviating from years of tradition.
Overall, the tone of the speech was about survival of the Western civilization, and the challenges it is facing.
3. At the G20 Summit.
Trump refused to change his position on U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron were sour about his decision.
A brief incident occurred when Ivanka Trump took her father’s seat, while he was conducting a bilateral meeting with the Indonesian president. The event started a debate on social media when one of the Russian delegation posted about it on Twitter. However, the photo was quickly deleted.
At the end of the meeting, 19 nations signed the ‘irreversible’ agreement, leaving the U.S. isolated. The U.S. President, it seems, wanted to fundamentally transform the agreement in U.S. favor, but it didn’t work out for him. The pact was signed and sealed.
However, he left a backdoor for himself if he changed his mind in the future, which is unlikely. In short, Trump is Trump, and the trip didn’t make any difference.
Finally…
Trump agreed to fund the United Nations’ World Food Programme with $639 million to help famine and drought-stricken countries like Yemen, South Sudan, and Somalia. Furthermore, he promised $50 million to the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, a World Bank fund aimed at helping women find investors, training, and putting new policies.
These efforts might paint America as a world leader again after the international community was shocked by America’s pulling out from the Paris Accord.
On a final note, Trump was greeted by and sent off by violent anti-capitalist protests that flooded the streets of Hamburg. As always, he used Twitter to thank the security forces which contained the protests, to some extent.