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Donald Trump was visibly at ease at the G7 summit and showed a surprising openness to the concerns of the other member states.
Keystone/AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
The G7 summit with U.S. President Donald Trump went surprisingly smoothly. Following the agreement with Iran, is there now also hope for an end to the war in Ukraine?
A cage fight before the flight there, a dinner at the Palace of Versailles before the flight back—between these two personal highlights, U.S. President Donald Trump showed himself to be surprisingly receptive to the concerns of the other heads of state and government at the G7 summit in Evian. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sensed a new “transatlantic unity,” and French President Emmanuel Macron experienced his “Evian moment” and rejoiced over a “rapprochement” between the U.S. and the other G7 nations.
Trump was visibly at ease at the luxury resort overlooking Lake Geneva, where everything was in bloom and lush with greenery. The U.S. president doesn’t actually particularly like summit meetings; in Canada in 2025, he left early. But this time, the meeting served as a stage for him to boast about his Iran deal —which, alongside the cage fight, he had essentially given himself as a birthday present—even though numerous details of the deal remain unresolved.
Time and again, Trump praised himself in front of the cameras for having persuaded the Iranians to abandon the development of nuclear weapons. And he thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the other G7 heads of state and government repeatedly congratulated him on this.
However, they did so in part to bring Trump back on board with regard to Ukraine. “I told President Trump: You can see from this example that clear military strength is capable of bringing about diplomatic solutions,” Merz said, for instance. “If the same applies to Ukraine, then we might even have the chance to move a little closer to peace in two critical parts of the world,” he added,
Although the framework agreement has not yet been signed, Trump has already threatened Iran in the style of an authoritarian disciplinarian, saying he would “bomb the country to smithereens if they don’t behave properly.” And it is also not yet clear whether the Strait of Hormuz will truly remain open without tolls on a permanent basis.
Nevertheless, the other G7 leaders did everything they could to avoid spoiling Trump’s good mood. When he arrived an hour late for the working session on Wednesday and remarked with a grin, “I’m the boss,” the others burst into polite laughter.
The flattery did not fail to have its effect: Trump appeared more determined than he had in a long time to now also persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reach a peace agreement. He sees a real opportunity for this: “They both want it, but they don’t know how to get started,” he said in his typical, fatherly tone.
The fact that Trump stayed until the very end was certainly also due to Macron’s invitation to Versailles. “I like the palace; there’s a lot of gold there, and I want to take a look at it,” he said after the summit ended. And he also seemed to relish the presence at dinner of Macron’s “fabulous” wife, Brigitte, whose hand he had held a little longer than necessary during the family photo.
Macron defended himself against accusations from many quarters that he had rolled out the red carpet for his U.S. counterpart. “We have nothing to be ashamed of: Versailles is a diplomatic tool and an instrument of power,” said Macron, who had invited Putin to Versailles shortly after taking office. Diplomacy means inviting even people whose opinions you don’t share, he explained.
However, the price of getting Trump to cooperate wasn’t just an invitation to dinner at the royal palace: Macron had also left out many topics that would have been appropriate for this meeting, which was supposed to address the world’s major crises—not least the joint fight against climate change. When asked whether this was justified, Merz gave an evasive answer. “Those were the main topics we had agreed upon together.”
Trump was the last of the heads of state and government to address the press after the summit concluded—and was greeted there as well with applause from members of his delegation. His closing remarks focused on the Iran deal, which Vice President JD Vance was set to sign: If it worked, he himself would be “a genius”—and if not, “then it’s the vice president’s fault.”
