“He wasn’t really an enemy at that time. There was no concept - if I were president, this war would have never happened.”
Trump blamed the decision to exclude Russia on former US President Barack Obama and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, even though Trudeau did not take office until the following year.
He said he was unsure whether Putin should be allowed back in the group because “too much water has gone over the dam, maybe”.
He also said it was “not a bad idea” when asked if Chinese President Xi Jinping should be invited to future G7 meetings.
In less than five months in office, Trump has upended US diplomacy with a friendlier posture towards Russia and an antagonistic approach to longtime US allies, including the G7 host, Canada.
Other leaders are attempting to navigate these changes without inviting Trump’s ire, even as they discuss divisive issues including tariffs, the Middle East, and the war in Ukraine.
The G7 began on the fourth day of conflict between Israel and Iran, a fresh wave of violence in the Middle East that undermines Trump’s commitments to serve as a global peacemaker.
Trump confirmed that he has received signals through intermediaries that Iran wants to de-escalate the attacks. He said Iran should have struck a deal to impose limits on its nuclear programme before surpassing a 60-day deadline.
“They have to make a deal,” he said.
“And it’s painful for both parties. But I’d say Iran is not winning this war … and they should talk immediately before it’s too late.”
After a one-on-one meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump was restrained, even conciliatory.
He voiced optimism that he and Carney could work out a deal on trade, and he directed no venom at the world leaders with whom he would be meeting, even as he criticised their predecessors.
“I’m a tariff person. I’ve always been a tariff - simple. It’s easy, it’s precise, and it just goes very quickly,” Trump said when asked about today’s trade talks. “And I think Mark has a more complex idea but also very good. So we’re going to look at both.
“We’ve developed a very good relationship,” he added.
A senior Canadian government official said that Trump and Carney had a “productive” meeting that lasted for more than an hour and focused on trade and security negotiations.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the tone of the conversation between the two leaders was encouraging.
Carney told reporters the meeting was “fantastic”.
Trump wore a lapel pin featuring the flags of Canada and the US. The pin was not part of a welcome gift from the hosts, said Emily Williams, a spokeswoman for Carney.
Carney started the meeting by wishing Trump and the US military a belated happy birthday, and he also praised Trump’s “bold” decision-making.
In addition to the international turmoil surrounding this week’s meeting, Trump also faces domestic unrest.
The past week included the shootings of two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses in Minnesota, nationwide demonstrations against Trump, and the deployment of the National Guard in response to protests against immigration raids.
Trump has called for more immigration enforcement in other cities with Democratic leaders.
“I want them to focus on the cities because the cities are where you really have what’s called ‘sanctuary cities’ and that’s where the people are,” Trump told reporters.
Tariffs are at the top of the agenda for many G7 attendees, as the forum founded to foster economic co-operation evolves into a negotiating table after Trump launched trade wars against key US partners.
Trump has imposed several sets of tariffs on Canadian goods, including autos, steel, aluminium and imports that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Canada has imposed levies of its own in response and has not ruled out further retaliation. Trump doubled the import tax on steel and aluminum to 50% this month - a move that could badly hurt the Canadian industries.
Canadian officials have been flying back and forth to Washington to press their US counterparts to lift all of the tariffs on Canada, while the Trump Administration has said that a baseline tariff might be permanent.
Pete Hoekstra, the US Ambassador to Canada, said last week that the G7 summit could be an “inflection point” in the negotiations.
“There’d be a lot of questions if there isn’t something that is announced,” he said at a lunch in Ottawa. “If not now, why not? If not now, when?”
However, Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister responsible for US-Canada trade, yesterday sought to temper expectations, saying that Canada had “hoped to make more progress” in the negotiations before the G7 and that the assumption in Canada that the US is “a reliable, economic partner has sort of been lost now”.
“These tariffs should never have been put in place,” he said on Canadian television. “… We don’t have the outcome we want and we’re obviously anxious to get there.”
