Spring公子

There is an old Chinese saying that goes, "It's hard to change one's nature even if the mountains and rivers change." Trump is essentially a businessman at heart. In his eyes, there are no such things as American allies. His governance philosophy is what he calls "America First." If America must come first, then other countries will inevitably suffer losses in their interests.

"America First" is essentially about this calculation: spending less money abroad and bringing more money home, reducing international obligations whenever possible, signing arms deals when feasible; domestically, cutting immigration, reducing expenditures, lowering taxes, while military spending keeps increasing exponentially. This strategy has not changed for seven years, and even at the recent G7 summit in Canada, Trump still did not give face to European countries.

The Europeans had hoped to use the summit to voice their grievances. Von der Leyen and Costa had already hinted beforehand, asking him to stop the tariff war. Their words implied that if the trade war continued, how could the EU afford to increase NATO defense spending as demanded by the U.S.? But Trump didn't even look up. Before the summit was over, Trump said there were domestic issues and left early. Canadian Prime Minister also expressed understanding.

The most disheartening thing for Europe was the handling of the Middle East crisis. France, Germany, and Italy hastily drafted a joint statement requesting Israel and Iran to cease hostilities and cool tensions. However, Trump dismissed it with a wave of his hand: "I've always said I don't want Iran developing nuclear weapons. Why sign this useless paper?" CNN reporters captured footage of French President Macron slamming the draft statement on the table: "He doesn't even care about surface-level unity anymore!" As soon as the refusal to sign dried, Trump's plane was already speeding toward Washington.

In fact, Canada had anticipated this outcome. Prior to the summit, Carney's team had secretly discussed for three days and ultimately decided to abandon the joint communiqué! As former Canadian Prime Minister Chrétien put it: "Rather than let Trump publicly overturn the table, we might as well take the table away ourselves." A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies revealed the underlying truth: Trump treats the G7 as a reality TV set, portraying himself last year as "taking on six nations," and this time upgrading to "tariff bombardments targeting allies." Even Britain's "special deal" was exposed by the Financial Times to have hidden catches: the U.S. requested Britain to open its pharmaceutical procurement market, indirectly allowing American companies to monopolize the British healthcare market.

In reality, the G7 itself is also like a clay Buddha crossing a river. Back when the seven countries held 70% of global wealth, now they're struggling to hold onto 40%. China's manufacturing accounts for 30% of the world, which is 5% more than the total of the G7. Yet, they still follow the old套路when holding meetings: repeatedly naming China 29 times in statements, but hilariously, the economic development of these countries all relies on China.

In terms of global governance, the G7 is becoming increasingly ineffective. They attempted to rally "Global South" countries, inviting South Africa and Brazil to participate, but developing countries simply refused to accept the old order dominated by the G7. The combined economy of the BRICS nations has already surpassed that of the G7, and the trend towards multipolarity is irreversible.

Ultimately, Trump is fundamentally a businessman. In his eyes, there are no such things as American allies. His governance philosophy is what he calls "America First." Since America must come first, other countries inevitably suffer losses in their interests. Therefore, since his first term began, Trump has basically offended many of America's allies.

At this G7 summit held in Canada, he still did not consider the interests of European countries and instead raised the flag of "America First" even higher. Alberto Fazzaro, an Italian expert, directly criticized: "The G7 is truly a threat to world peace!" Global governance has entered the "puzzle era," where countries temporarily form teams based on specific issues like climate and counter-terrorism. The G7-style "value alliance" is completely outdated.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7516728512544358947/

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