Will Trump blow up the G7 summit?
Analysis bytephen Collinson, CNN
Updated at854 GMT (1654 HKT) August 23, 2019
Play Video
Trump says he would like to see Russia rejoin G801:30
(CNN)Xhe biggest question clouding this weekend's G7 summit in France ishether the President of the United States will blow it up.
It is a measure of the gulf between America and its allies and of howresident Donald Trumpas imposed his disruptive character on the world that everyone in Biarritz is bracing for a presidential eruption.
Given the President's brazen,rratic behavior and mood in the last few days, the idea that he could repeat hisantrum and early departure at the last G7ummit in Canada last year cannot be ruled out. After all, he just pulled out of atate visit to Denmark becauset refused to discuss selling Greenland.
Will Trump blow up the G7 summit?
Analysis bytephen Collinson, CNN
Updated at854 GMT (1654 HKT) August 23, 2019
Play Video
Trump says he would like to see Russia rejoin G801:30
(CNN)Xhe biggest question clouding this weekend's G7 summit in France ishether the President of the United States will blow it up.
It is a measure of the gulf between America and its allies and of howresident Donald Trumpas imposed his disruptive character on the world that everyone in Biarritz is bracing for a presidential eruption.
Given the President's brazen,rratic behavior and mood in the last few days, the idea that he could repeat hisantrum and early departure at the last G7ummit in Canada last year cannot be ruled out. After all, he just pulled out of atate visit to Denmark becauset refused to discuss selling Greenland.
Trump frequently flings vitriol across the Atlantic, criticizing foreign leaders who have spent the past two-and-a-half years trying, usually unsuccessfully, to work out how to handle him. His behavior is a promise kept to voters who believe that America's friends have long taken advantage of its power and security guarantees.
Last month, for instance, he blasted French Presidentmmanuel Macron's "foolishness"over a digital services tax that hit US companies and vowed to impose tariffs on French wine.
Anticipating trouble from Trump, Macron has abandoned theummit's regular communiquen an effort to take the focus off the disagreements set to rumble in the French surfing resort.
The G7, a group of rich democracies that comprise Britain, France, Germany, the US, Italy, Japan and Canada, is exactly the kind of globalized gathering that Trump and his supporters abhor and is in itself almost a rebuke to his America First philosophy.
The President prefers bilateral meetings where he can leverage superior US power, and he believes national sovereignty, not multilateral cooperation, is the foundation of international relations.
Furthermore, Trump's sharp changes to US foreign policy have opened wide gaps with Europe on climate change, Iran, trade and Britain's exit from the European Unionhat preoccupy other leaders.
"What we're seeing, I think, is the institutionalization of America alone