Trump slammed for calling Russian G7 expulsion a ‘mistake’

U.S. President Donald Trump says the Russia-Ukraine conflict wouldn’t have happened if Russia remained in the G8.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of Russia being expelled from the G7 is drawing sharp criticism from Canadian officials and diplomats, as Prime Minister Mark Carney navigates a summit agenda that includes both war and tariffs.

“Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in,” Trump told reporters Monday, in an apparent reference to Russia’s expulsion from the group of major industrialized democracies in 2014, and to former prime minister Justin Trudeau, who was not yet elected at the time.

“There are a bunch of factual errors there,” said former Alberta premier Jason Kenney during a panel segment with CTV’s Power Play Monday.

“It wasn’t always the G8. It started as the G7 in the 1970s, precisely to bring together the major democratic economies of the world as a counterpoint to the coordination going on in the Soviet bloc.”

Russia was only invited as part of an effort to encourage reform in the post-Soviet era, said Kenney, a move he called a “failed experiment” as Russia later annexed Crimea and invaded Ukraine.

“Bringing Putin in … all that does is create an impossible group to discuss anything in terms of shared values or strategic interests,” Kenney said.

Derek Burney, former Canadian ambassador to the U.S., was even more blunt.

“You’re talking about a war criminal,” Burney said. “There’s no way anybody can pretend that Russia is a democracy today.”

Burney said Trump’s comments reflect a comfort with autocratic leaders, adding that Canada and other G7 members “are going to stand firm on this.”

Trump has continued to insist the war in Ukraine wouldn’t have broken out had he remained in office, a statement Burney dismissed as “nonsensical.”

“Thank God (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky is at the G7 summit in Canada, and not Putin,” he said.

Carney has invited Zelenskyy to attend alongside G7 leaders and select guests.

John Manley, who served as both foreign affairs and finance minister during Jean Chretien’s premiership, noted there may be “a little piece of truth” in Trump’s emphasis on keeping lines of communication open, but said that doesn’t justify reinstating Russia.

“I don’t think that Vladimir Putin is on the same wavelength as the other countries in the G7,” Manley said. “His exclusion was done at a time that wasn’t accompanied by enough other firm measures … but I’ve never believed in pulling our ambassadors out of countries.”

‘We deserve what we negotiated’

Despite the foreign policy fireworks, Trump said his focus at the summit was trade and Canada.

“I think our primary focus will be trade, and trade with Canada, and I’m sure we can work something out,” Trump said at a bilateral meeting with Carney. “I’m a tariff person. I’ve always been a tariff (person). It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s precise and it just goes very quickly, and I think Mark has a more complex idea, but also very good.”

The two leaders met privately following weeks of calls and text exchanges in a bid to de-escalate tensions tied to tariffs and market access.

Kenney said Trump’s fondness for tariffs is deeply ingrained.

“He has said before that his favourite word in the English language is tariffs … and in 40 years of public commentary on issues, it is the one issue on which he has been most consistent,” he said. “I hope that what we’re going to get out of some agreement is a minimization of tariffs.”

Kenney noted Trump imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada during his first administration, only to later walk them back and sign the Canada-U.S.-Mexico (CUSMA) trade deal.

“The challenge for Prime Minister Carney is to bring him back to that,” Kenney said. “The early evidence of growth in the U.S. economy… is probably not a good sign. It will probably be seen as wind in the sails of Trump tariff protectionism.”

Burney said Canada must hold the line.

“We have an agreement … which reduces almost all of the tariffs between our two economies. For us to backslide on that under whatever pretext is not something we should be jumping into,” he said.

“We don’t deserve modest relief. We deserve what we negotiated.”

Manley echoed that concern, questioning whether Canada can rely on Trump as a trading partner.

“We did have an agreement with him before, and his first day in office, he breached it,” Manley said. “So do we have a reliable counterparty?”

Manley added that Canada needs more than promises.

“We absolutely want to have preferential access to the U.S. market,” Manley said. “We need some stability and certainty… not something we’re reviewing every year.”

With files from The Canadian Press