President Trump is unimportant. Trump is completely ignored by the G7. Trump is inconsequential. Just as this photo proves. L to R: Larry Kudlow, Teresa May, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Shinzo Abe, John Bolton, Trump.

Trump “refuses”: what?

To sign an agreement — a “communique” the G7 nations insist upon?

For those unfamiliar, the G7 nations consist of the US, UK, Canada, Italy, France, Japan and Germany.

Russia once made it the G8 until Russia annexed Crimea and invaded Ukraine.

The G8/G7 was formed in consideration of global economies, security and energy.

My first question: what was the nature of this so-called “communique”?

Isn’t it odd that you have to look quite deeply to discern the contents of said document?

First, from Politico.com:

Trump stuns allies, won’t sign G-7 joint agreement

by Andrew Restuccia and Brent D Griffiths

The president touted great relationships with other G-7 leaders — but then abruptly reversed on signing a joint statement and lashed out at the Canadian prime minister.

President Donald Trump said the United States will not sign a joint agreement with other G-7 countries, an abrupt reversal that will further erode relations with key U.S. allies and underscore the country’s increasing isolation under Trump.

“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!“ Trump wrote, adding that Trudeau was “very dishonest and weak.”

It’s a remarkable change of tune for the United States. U.S. officials worked closely with G-7 negotiators for days on the communique, and other nations took pains to ensure that Trump would sign on, despite deep disagreements on trade.

Wait. Let’s not get silly. Didn’t Trump say for some time that if he isn’t satisfied, he’s not signing on? And this comes as a shock how? Coming from Politico, this next paragraph is revelatory.

For Trump, the decision may be a political winner. The president’s base is deeply skeptical of the system of international cooperation that has for so long been at the core of U.S. foreign and economic policy.

Haven’t seen anything in the article about the contents of the agreement or “communique” yet.

Tensions over trade, meanwhile, dominated the summit. As POLITICO reportedon Friday, Trump, during a private meeting, floated the idea of ending all tariffs and trade barriers between the U.S. and its G-7 allies. Right before leaving for Singapore, Trump upped the ante in his press conference with reporters, warning that he could cut off or severely limit trade access to the United States if G-7 countries don’t cooperate.

Trump states the obvious next.

“We’re the piggybank that everybody is robbing,” Trump said. “And that ends.”

Are we a proverbial “piggy bank”? Oddly enough I have a memory and access to the internet. I seem to recall that the US lost 500,000 soldiers defeating Germany and its allies in World War II. We liberated all of Europe and the rest of the world from Germany not just once, but twice. Let’s go back a tad bit further. German troops fought against America in the Revolutionary War.

Yet Germany is kvetching — as is the rest of Europe — when they’ve been getting a free ride on the backs of American Taxpayers as they continue not paying their requisite 2% of GDP to help finance NATO. BusinessInsider.com reports:

Only five of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 28 member countries last year met the alliance goal of spending at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense.

Which countries are not reaching the 2 percent?

It’s as if Europe and the rest of the G7 are saying something similar to “if the US isn’t willing to pay for our lavish lifestyles, then we’re taking our toys — the ones the US funded — and going home.” The US runs a $151 billion dollar trade deficit with Europe. Is that “fundamental fairness?”

Then there are, naturally, the tariffs.

Addressing Canadian tariffs alone, here are a few. Canada has — ahem — 19,500 tariffs.

• Dairy: 270%
• Sausage: 70%
• Barley Seeds: 58%
• Durum Wheat: 49%
• Bovine Products: 27%
• Table Linens: 18%

A side note: when the US exited the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership), Canada acquired protectionist deals under the guise of protecting what it termed “cultural industries.” Translated: “We are protecting Canada and everyone else can go to hell.” Trudeau literally said that “we got a better deal for Canada.” It’s fine to Canada to be protectionist; inherently unfair for the US to consider the same.

Let us not forget that Mexico already has a $3 billion dollar tariff system in place.

As a result of the US finally beginning to stand on its own two legs, the EU has stated it will target the US on:

• Cranberries — already at 22%
• Orange Juice: 23%
• Whiskey: 11%
• Motorbikes: 6%

Germany has tariffs four times higher on our vehicles than we on theirs. Where is the “fundamental fairness” of that?

Canada has said that it will retaliate with $13 billion dollars in tariffs on US goods, and the EU says it will lay $3 billion dollars in tariffs on US goods also.

It also becomes evident that countries are targeting very specific constituencies and lawmakers in the US. Countries are looking at our electoral maps in making these determinations, ensuring that President Trump’s decisions are going to hurt voters in Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky and similar states.

Because, you see, up to now the US and its presidents have been afraid to reveal these inequities and concomitant hypocrisy. The EU and Canadian bleat that “you don’t do this to friends” covers up that “friends” of the US have been “doing” the US for years. It is so commonplace that to upset the imbalance is to entreat war.

Look, in terms of fair trade, the numbers are on the side of President Trump. There is a massive trade imbalance yet — let’s look at IMF figures.

US GDP: $20 trillion dollars.

• Japan: $5.2 trillion
• Germany: $4.2 trillion
• France: $2.9 trillion
• UK: $2.9 trillion
• Italy: $2.2 trillion
• Canada: $1.8 trillion

Total of G6: $19.2 trillion dollars vs the US at $20 trillion dollars.

And oh yeah: the US is close to being the number one oil producer on the planet.

Back to the “communique.” Not one reference to its contents in the Politico article. CNN didn’t have it. I went through seven other media outlets before I actually found a copy of the actual “agreement” at Reuters.com. It contains the standard Leftist feel-good pablum that any 15-year-old at Parkland could write.

Resultingly, Canadians, Europeans, Leftists, Demorats and the American Media Maggots are outraged that Trump has insisted that the United States stop bending over, holding its ankles and insisting there be no lubricant when other countries hammer through the door of the US economic sphincter.

Let there be no mistake: it’s the continual tapping of the veins of the American Taxpayer that has allowed Europe to become the Socialist, paradisal, Utopian experiment each country has wished to be. Why should they have to pay for their own defense, build their own huge militaries, expend prodigious amounts of service cash when it could be better spent on social programs for their own people? Hell, the US will cover us. They always have and they always will.

Europeans have not had to pay for a substantial portion of their defense and, further, it was the Marshall Plan which, following World War II, rebuilt Western Europe to the tune of $13 billion dollars ($110 billion in 2016 dollars) when it was Germany that tried to enslave the globe. What other nation did that then? Correct. No other.

The Europeans and Canada still insist, these days, that US veins be tapped because, after all, why should anyone upset the proverbial “good thing”?

Steve Hilton nails it.

The United States appeared to have, up to this point, what BZ calls Historical Alzheimers — to the great benefit of Europe. Just keep the cash rolling, Jack, and things will be just fine.

As in: shut up and pay for our socialist, paradisal, Utopian ways. And oh yeah, keep paying for our European defense as well. We live right next to Russia, after all. Tariffs? Don’t mention them.

Then comes President Donald John Trump, the guy with the dead orange cat on his head. Bull, meet China shop.

Expecting Europe and Canada to pay some of its own freight?

Expecting some kind of fundamental fairness in trade?

Heresy!

BZ