QUEBEC CITY—U.S. President Donald Trump greeted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warmly Friday morning as he arrived at the G7.Although he’d tweeted grumpily the night before that Trudeau was “so indignant” about American tariffs, Trump looked happy to see the prime minister. They shook hands and smiled for the cameras, as all eyes were on them.Hours later, they sat down together behind closed doors. According to a source with knowledge of their discussions, Trump said: “People forget how close we are Justin, and I notice that they took a picture of us smiling and talking and the market went up 200 points.”Trump would raise that anecdote a couple more times over the course of what was a pivotal meeting, according to an official. Asked what to make of that, the source said perhaps the American president liked to reflect on his power.Whether markets moved or not, Trump and Trudeau’s sit-down exchange came after a long afternoon of contentious talks on the economy and trade among G7 leaders.In the end they appeared to reach a fragile G7 consensus and U.S. agreement on a joint communiqué only to see that fall apart with Trump’s two-tweet blast at Trudeau Saturday night.Here’s a look at what unfolded over the G7 summit that formed a backdrop to that eruption, one that undermined unity of the Western alliance. Closer to home, there appears little prospect of quick recovery of the supposed goodwill between Trump and Trudeau that is so crucial to resolving the tariff dispute and the stalled negotiations over NAFTA, the North American free trade pact.Based on conversations on background and on-the-record talks with Canadian and other G7 delegation officials over the past three days, the behind-the-scenes dynamic was a tense one.Coming into the summit, Trump had already angered allies with his decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from some of America’s key allies, including Canada.At talks on ...
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