Trump claims ‘big stuff is happening' as he leaves G7 summit early to return to Washington
Donald Trump has left the G7 summit a day early to return to Washington to hold a National Security Council meeting as the Israel - Iran conflict escalates.
Speaking to reporters after posing for a 'family photo' in Alberta, Canada on Monday (16 June), the president said that 'big stuff' is happening and he 'has to be back as soon as I can'.
He thanked Canada for hosting before adding that 'loved it' and 'really wished I could stay for tomorrow'.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt cited 'what's going on in the Middle East ' as the official reason for the president's departure.
Canada's PM Mark Carney said he "fully understands why" Mr Trump is leaving, with French president Emmanuel Macron agreeing that it is 'a good thing'.
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Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The reason Trump rushed home from G7 summit revealed
President Trump gave a new reason for his sudden departure from G7 meetings in Canada amid the escalating fight between Israel and Iran. The president told reporters aboard Air Force One he plans to hold 'early' meetings with his security team in the White House Situation Room, after issuing a stunning call for people to 'evacuate' Tehran amid Israeli bomb attacks there. But the president travels with a cordon of aides and high-tech equipment, giving him the ability to monitor or direct events from anywhere in the world – including the summit he left after participating for a single day. Trump said he wanted to leave the tranquil mountain lodge in Alberta because he didn't rely on phones. 'Just be a little bit more, I think, well versed. Not having to use telephones so much,' Trump said, when asked why he bailed. 'Because I don't believe in telephones. Because people like you listen to them. Being on the scene is much better. And we did everything I had to do at the G7.' Trump has long been known to take steps to avoid writing things down. But he also does a lot of work on the phone, taking calls from a string of reporters when his feud with Elon Musk erupted weeks ago. Earlier Monday, when asked while meeting with British PM Keir Starmer whether he might travel to the Middle East, Trump noted that he could use the phone instead. Shortly before taking off, Trump blasted French President Emmanuel Macron, who had told French reporters Trump had told him he was pushing a cease fire plan. 'I'm not looking at cease fire. We're looking at better than cease fire,' Trump said. Trump said the reality was the opposite. But when pressed by the Daily Mail, Trump didn't name any new steps the U.S. was taking to help Isreal as it battles the Islamic Republic. 'An end. A real end. Not a cease fire. An end,' he said. Asked if he was open to a deal with Iran, Trump indicated he had lost his interest. 'Their cities have been blown to pieces – lost a lot of people. They should have done the deal. I told them do the deal. So I don't know, I'm not too much in the mood to negotiate now,' Trump said. Trump took another shot at Macron on the plane. 'I didn't say I was looking for a ceasefire. That was Emmanuel—nice guy but he doesn't get it right too often,' he said. The president snapped at CNN's Kaitlan Collins when she asked him if there was any 'guarantee' that the US could successfully take out Iran's nuclear if it got involved in the fight. 'Look at you. There's no guarantee,' Trump told the mic-wielding correspondent during a cramped gaggle with the media on the presidential aircraft. He also called her 'fake news.' Trump was coy when asked by the Daily Mail if Israel, which has obtained air superiority over the skies of Iran, would now accelerate its attacks on its rival. 'You're going to find out over the next two days, right? You're going to find out. Nobody's slowed up so far,' he said. Trump also explained his stunning decision to call on Iranians to evacuate Tehran, after his online post Monday sent thousands more fleeing while Israeli bombing operations continues. 'I just want people to be safe,' Trump said, without previewing any further actions. 'I think they know not to touch our troops,' Trump said when asked about any new threats to U.S. interests in the region. Despite the tough talk, Trump didn't rule out overtures, including Vice President JD Vance and negotiator Steve Witkoff talking to the Iranians. 'They may. Depends on what happens when I get back,' said Trump. On another conflict, Trump said he hadn't heard about the latest Russian attack on an apartment building in Kiev that killed at least 14. The news broke shortly before Air Force One took off, while Trump traveled there by helicopter late Monday after a day of meetings. Trump's decision had him flying home with Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio as well as other top aides. He had to scrap planned meetings with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. As he returned home from a summit Kananaskis in the Canadian Rockies, Asked how visiting the bucolic setting impacted his push to make Canada the 51st U.S state, Trump revealed some acceptance of the status quo. 'I think it's a much better deal for Canada. But you know it's up to them. They're going to have to pay a lot of tariffs and things. They're going to have to pay a lot of money for the dome. For the Iron Dome. They want to be a part of it,' Trump said. He was referring to his 'Golden Dome,' his take on Israel's 'Iron Dome,' although some experts have already said it won't work. 'We may make a separate deal on that, by the way. We discussed that, yeah, on the dome. May be a separate deal. They want to be at $71 billion they're going to pay. They'll be in the dome. They'll be under the dome.,' Trump said. Canada has given no indication it would participate to that extent financially. Its ambassador to U.S. called Trump's demand that it pay $61 billion a 'protection racket.' In an extraordinary outburst, Trump tore into Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz (D), who has been eulogizing a former House speaker who got shot a state senator and her husband who got shot. Trump appeared to fault Waltz for once hirin the suspect as an administtration. Asked if he would call Watlz, Trump responded: 'I don't really call him. Look, he appointed this guy to a position. I think the governor of Minnesota's so whacked out. I'm not calling him. Why would I call him? I could call him – say: 'Hi, how you doing?' The guy doesn't have a clue. He's a mess. So I could be nice and call him, but why waste time.' Even as he returned home to ride herd on problems in the Middle East, Trump indicated he left it to staff to sweat some of the details at the G7, such as a formal communique. He said he had authorized staff 'to say certain things. I don't know whether or not they said them correctly, but I think they probably did.''
BreakingNews.ie
34 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Trump departs G7 early as Israel-Iran conflict shows signs of intensifying
President Donald Trump has abruptly left the G7 summit, departing a day early on Monday as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensifies and the US leader has declared that Tehran should be evacuated 'immediately'. World leaders had gathered in Canada with the specific goal of helping to defuse a series of global pressure points, only to be disrupted by a showdown over Iran's nuclear programme that could escalate in dangerous and uncontrollable ways. Advertisement Israel launched an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran four days ago. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer participate in a group photo at the G7 Summit (Mark Schiefelbein/AP) At the summit, Mr Trump warned that Tehran needs to curb its nuclear programme before it is 'too late'. He said Iranian leaders would 'like to talk' but they had already had 60 days to reach an agreement on their nuclear ambitions and failed to do so before the Israeli aerial assault began. 'They have to make a deal,' he said. Advertisement Asked what it would take for the US to get involved in the conflict militarily, Mr Trump said on Monday morning: 'I don't want to talk about that.' But by Monday afternoon, Mr Trump warned ominously on social media, 'Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!' Shortly after that, Mr Trump decided to leave the summit and skip a series of Tuesday meetings that would address the ongoing war in Ukraine and global trade issues. As Mr Trump posed for a picture on Monday evening with the other G7 leaders, he said simply: 'I have to be back, very important.' Advertisement Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the host, said: 'I am very grateful for the president's presence and I fully understand.'
The Guardian
34 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump gives Iran stark choice in display of raw power to both Tehran and Europe
Discussing the dilemma facing western diplomats in confronting Iran's nuclear programme, Henry Kissinger wrote in 2006: 'Diplomacy never operates in a vacuum. It persuades not by the eloquence of its practitioners but by assembling a balance of incentives and risks.' Rarely has the balance of incentives and risks been placed so starkly in front of Iran's leaders as now. Donald Trump, either by design or by stumbling ad hoc towards a strategy, has left Iran with a stark choice: either return to the negotiating table and accept the offer of 'a deal', or see Israel – possibly with US support – pulp Iran's security apparatus, nuclear programme and economy into the ground in what would be the ultimate exercise in maximum pressure, the term the US president gave to his first-term economic sanctions on Tehran. Judging by his statements and actions over the past 48 hours, Trump is also trying to demonstrate that any deal is seen to be on his terms, and that he is sole decision-maker. It is an attempted display of raw power not to just to Iran, but to Europe. In a move designed to underline Europe's irrelevance and indeed his contempt for the multilateralism symbolised by the G7, Trump abandoned the Canadian summit a day early. He has left such G7s early before, but never quite so dramatically. One senior diplomat, asked if Trump had flown to Washington essentially on a diplomatic mission to secure peace or to join the war against Iran, replied frankly: 'We don't know!' As Air Force One departed, Emmanuel Macron tried to shape narrative of the departure by saying that a ceasefire was in the offing, if not close. Trump then, in a tone of some relish, belittled the 'the publicity-seeking' French leader in typically stark terms. 'Whether purposely or not, Emmanuel always gets it wrong,' he posted on Truth Social. He was after something 'much bigger' than a ceasefire, he said. Indeed US diplomats at the G7 had refused to countenance the call for a ceasefire appearing in the joint communique on the Iran-Israel crisis, the chief raison d'être for issuing a joint statement in the first place. In the interests of securing any kind of communique, the European leaders retreated, leaving a sparse eight sentences that in effect implicitly endorsed Israel's actions by saying we 'affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel.' The four European leaders left abandoned high in the Rocky Mountains with the Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and other international leaders invited by their host now have to reassemble for the second day of the summit without the US. Spare a thought for the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, with whom Trump had meetings scheduled at the G7 on Tuesday. It looks once again as though Europe has been left as the bystander to history, adept at drafting consensual communiques and declarations while the decisions are made by unilateralists prepared to use destructive force. Rarely has the sword been so much mightier than the pen. Russia happily crowed it had always seen the G7, a club from which it was excluded for invading Crimea, as 'pretty useless'. In fairness to Europe's leaders, they have tried to play a part in securing a deal. Three European foreign ministers spoke to their Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, by phone at the request of the US. The kernel of the proposal that they relayed was that Iran should offer in effect an unconditional ceasefire, and end all talk of escalation. Threats by Tehran to remove all UN weapons inspectors needed to be rescinded. The idea of a motion to the Iranian parliament calling for Iran to leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a precursor to acquiring a nuclear bomb, should be dropped. US assets in the region must not be attacked. De-escalation had to be the priority, since any escalation would lead to a catastrophic conflict, the consequences of which no one can control, as was said by the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy. Araghchi, sources said, reverted to his argument that Iran could hardly silence the guns without Israel doing the same. The outcome of those discussions was then relayed to Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, by Lammy and the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot. One western diplomat admitted they were sending messages to the Iranians about a US-Israeli strategy about which they had not been consulted. Lammy had earlier hinted at his disagreements in the Commons, stressing the UK was not approving or involved in Israel's military action. Iran's nuclear programme had to be constrained, he agreed, but 'fundamentally, no military action can put an end to Iran's nuclear capabilities.' It was for Iran to choose its leaders, he added. Back in Canada Macron also warned against enforced regime change: 'Those who believe that bombing from the outside can save a country despite itself and against itself have always been wrong,' he said. Now everything rests on what the US proposes. Speaking on Air Force One on the way to Washington, Trump said he wanted a 'real end' with Iran 'giving up entirely' on its nuclear programme. That on the surface means an end to Iran's right to enrich uranium, Tehran's red line since it touches on its sovereignty. But a diminished Iran will have to decide if, in the interest of self-preservation, it has to abandon any right to draw red lines. A chastened Europe after this past few days will probably recognise that dilemma.
