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On the first day of the G7 meetings in Canada, President Donald Trump criticized removing Russia from the G8 in 2014, arguing the exclusion contributed to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Some shit you should know before you read: If you’re unaware, the G8 was an informal group of eight of the world’s largest advanced economies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Russia) created to coordinate economic policy and address global issues. Russia joined in 1997, transforming the G7 into the G8, with the aim of integrating the post-Soviet state into Western diplomatic and economic systems. However, in March 2014, the group effectively went back to the G7 after Russia was suspended due to its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The decision to remove Russia was made collectively by the remaining seven member nations, who also canceled a planned summit in Sochi and instead held the meeting in Brussels without Russian participation.
What’s going on now: While speaking to reporters alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the G7 summit in Alberta, President Trump criticized Russia’s removal from the G8. Trump said, “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in.” Throughout his remarks, Trump repeatedly claimed that former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau played a central role in ousting Russia, even though Trudeau did not become prime minister until 2015. He said, “They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake, even though I wasn’t in politics. Then I was very loud about it. It was a mistake.”
Trump added that he believed President Putin was personally offended by the G8 expulsion, stating, “Putin speaks to me. He doesn’t speak to anybody else. He doesn’t want to talk because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G8—as I would be, as you would be, as anybody would be.” He added, “Obama didn’t want him. And the head of your country, the proud head of your country, didn’t want him. This was a big mistake.”
Trump also suggested that having Russia “at the table” would have prevented the current war in Ukraine and that if he had been in office four years earlier, the conflict could have been avoided altogether.
