Leaders Exchanging Jibes: Highlights Of NATO Summit in London

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit ended in London on Wednesday, with the leaders of the allied countries taking plentiful jibes at each other throughout the summit. The U.S. President Donald Trump, of course, led the pack.

“Very, Very Nasty” Macron

Ahead of the summit, Trump said that French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments referring to the “brain death” of NATO were “very, very nasty.”

In an interview with The Economist in November, Macron had said that the organization can’t continue to rely on the U.S. for its defense and that what we were witnessing was the “brain death of NATO.”

The relations between the U.S. and France have been strained lately due to the U.S.’s opposition to the latter’s digital services tax, among other concerns.

President Trump mocked the state of the French economy, which, according to him, is “experiencing a high unemployment rate.”

“Two-Faced” Trudeau

In a video posted by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation from a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday evening, some of the world’s leaders can be seen sharing a lighthearted moment reportedly at the expense of Trump in his absence.

The U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson quipped Macron on why he was late to the reception, but the response came from the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

“He was late because he takes a 40 minutes press conference off the top,” Trudeau said, referring to an impromptu press conference called by Trump earlier in the day, according to CBC.

“You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor,” Trudeau added, which he later clarified to be referring to Trump’s announcement that the next NATO summit will take place at the U.S. presidential retreat, Camp David, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Well, he’s two-faced,” Trump told reporters when asked to respond to Trudeau’s comments, during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to the WSJ.

Trump added that Trudeau was a “nice guy,” but upset over Trump elbowing him to increase Canada’s military expenditure.