Aug 10, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Trump says G7 summit will be delayed until after the election

President Trump told reporters on Monday that he wants to delay the G7 summit until after November's election and implied that the decision had already been made.

The big picture: Plans for the summit have already been scrapped multiple times, with proposed venues moving from the Trump National Doral resort in Miami to Camp David. In May, Trump postponed the in-person event in Washington, D.C. to September.

What to watch: Trump has said on numerous occasions that he wants to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the summit, despite the fact that Russia was kicked out of the G7 for annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

  • U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have both said they would veto attempts to bring Russia back into the G7.
  • Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined Trump's invitation to attend the in-person summit in May due to coronavirus concerns

What he's saying: "I'm much more inclined to do it sometime after the election. We were going to do in September. They'd like to do it, we could do it through teleconference or we could do it through a meeting," Trump said.

  • "But, I sort of am suggesting, I told my people yesterday, actually, why don't we do it sometime after the election when things are a little bit, you have a little more time to think about it, because it's very important. The G7's very important."
  • "Some people have already accepted, but we're going to be doing it after the election. ... I think it's just a better, calmer atmosphere to have a G7."
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