President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, leaving Hamburg, Germany, on Saturday after the Group of 20 summit meeting.
HAMBURG, Germany — The Europeans have stopped trying to paper over their differences with President Trump and the United States.
Traditionally respectful of American leadership and mindful of the country’s crucial role in European defense and global trade, European leaders normally repress or soften their criticism of United States presidents. Europeans were generally not happy with President Barack Obama’s reluctance to involve the country in Libya and Syria, for example, or his tardiness to engage in what became an international confrontation with Russia in Ukraine, but their criticism was quiet.
But here at the Group of 20summit meeting, public splits with Mr. Trump were the order of the day. Those rifts have been reflected in European domestic politics, too, from Britain and France to Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merker has said that Europe must" take or fate" into our own hands” and stop “glossing over” clear differences.
The new French president, Emmanuel Macron, whose election has renewed confidence among Europeans, said bluntly: “Our world has never been so divided. Centrifugal forces have never been so powerful. Our common goods have never been so threatened.”
