President Donald Trump said Friday that he may pardon the late boxer Muhammad Ali.

Ali was convicted in 1967 for refusing to report for induction into the United States military during the Vietnam War. His local draft board rejected his application for conscientious objector classification.

"He was, look, he was not very popular then, certainly his memory is popular now," Trump told reporters as he prepared to leave the White House on Friday en route to a Group of Seven economic summit in Canada. "I'm thinking about that very seriously, and some others, and some folks that have some sentences that aren't fair."

"I'm thinking about that very seriously, and some others."

Trump has used his clemency powers to pardon or commute sentences in a string of high-profile cases recently. Those have included the late Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champ.

Ali, who died in 2016, was sentenced to five years in prison. He eventually appealed his conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1971 in a unanimous ruling that found the Department of Justice had improperly told the draft board that Ali's stance wasn't motivated by his Muslim religious beliefs.

A pardon does not technically erase a conviction; it is an expression of forgiveness from the president that, in most cases, serves to undo the punishment and help the recipient of the pardon restore rights, such as the right to vote.

A posthumous pardon — as would be the case with Ali — is completely symbolic. While a pardon is typically not meant to imply innocence, that is perhaps the signal Trump is trying to send.

Last week, Trump told reporters he is considering pardoning lifestyle maven Martha Stewart, who was convicted in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale, and commuting the sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who was convicted in 2010 for trying to sell President Barack Obama's Senate seat, among other campaign finance violations.

Earlier this week, Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman serving a life term for nonviolent drug-related offenses, after meeting with reality television star and socialite Kim Kardashian West to discuss the case.

"The power to pardon is a beautiful thing," Trump told reporters Friday. "I want to do people who are unfairly treated like an Alice."

The Washington Post's Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.</s>The president said, 'she's doing great.'

On Friday morning, en route to the G7 summit, President Donald Trump spoke briefly about Melania Trump’s recent “operation.”

According to a CNN report, the president referred to the First Lady’s medical procedure, which happened last month at Walter Reed Military Medical Center an “operation.” His use of that term is the first time the word has been associated with her medical procedure, which her spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, said was for an “embolization procedure for a benign kidney condition.”

From the South Lawn of the White House, Donald Trump answered questions about his wife’s health. He said, “First lady’s great, right there,” while pointing to the windows of the White House. “She wanted to go,” said Trump. “Can’t fly for one month, the doctors say. She had a big operation, that was close to a 4-hour operation. And she’s doing great,” the President said.

Because Melania Trump stayed in the hospital for five nights for a procedure that some doctors said should have a quicker recovery time, and because she stayed out of the public eye for three weeks, people speculated perhaps her procedure was cosmetic. Donald Trump quickly lashed out at those rumors, calling speculation “vicious.” However, Inquisitr reported that Donald Trump once started similar rumors about Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski.

When asked about further details on the First Lady’s health, Grisham said, “I am not going to expand beyond the statement I put out. The First Lady is in good spirits and she is resting. There are HIPAA laws to consider, but she also deserves personal privacy.” After Donald Trump’s remarks about Melania’s operation, Grisham pointed to her previous release and said, “The statement I put out on May 14 was correct. Mrs. Trump had a successful embolization procedure. She cannot travel internationally yet, and is doing great.”

Yesterday, the First Lady made her first public appearance in 26 days. She and President Donald Trump appeared at a FEMA headquarters briefing on the upcoming hurricane season amid reports that of her soaring popularity, Inquisitr reported. Although she did not speak, reporters at the event said that Melania Trump appeared healthy.

Later, she tweeted about the “informative meeting” she attended and provided a link for her followers to download the FEMA mobile app to receive alerts and safety reminders.

So far, the White House stands by the details of Melania Trump’s procedure, and anything else is conjecture. By all accounts, the First Lady is doing well and recovered.</s>Arron Banks, the British money man behind the U.K.'s 'Brexit' vote to leave the EU, had close ties to Russia and connected Russian officials with the Donald Trump team, British media reports.

Shortly after the United Kingdom narrowly voted to leave the European Union in what was known as the “Brexit” vote in June of 2016, Donald Trump posted a message to his Twitter account that had political observers scratching their head — “They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!”

“Is Trump claiming he was the driving force behind Britain’s decision to quit the European Union? Or that his troubled campaign, like Brexit, will end in surprise victory? Who knows, but as Trump likes to do when he asks: ‘Did Obama create Isis?’ or ‘Is Hillary a murderer?’ we can take the available facts and say: we don’t know, but that’s what people are asking,” wrote The Guardian newspaper after Trump’s puzzling Tweet.

Trump “seemingly used the reference to imply that he would win the U.S. election,” wrote The Washington Post, while conceding that on social media, “thousands of users questioned exactly what Trump meant by his triumphal prognostication.”

But a bombshell exposé in The Sunday Times of London on June 10 may answer the question of exactly why Trump called himself “Mr. Brexit.” According to the investigative report, the Trump and Brexit campaigns were closely linked — and the British businessman who bankrolled the Brexit campaign slipped contact information for several members of Trump’s transition team to Russian officials.

Arron Banks (pictured at center in the image at the top of this page) a 48-year-old British financier who owns a South African diamond mine according to his own statements in The Guardian, was a top donor to the “Leave” campaign that supported Britain’s exit from the European Union.

New reporting by The Times revealed that Banks met on at least three occasions with the Russian ambassador to the U.K. — even though he had previously acknowledged only one meeting with Alexander Yakovenko (pictured at the top of this page, right).

Yakovenko, Mother Jones magazine reported, has also met with Joseph Mifsud, the U.K.-based, Maltese professor who told Trump campaign foreign policy adviser that Russia possessed “thousands” of emails containing “dirt” on Democratic 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Mifsud has now disappeared, as The Inquisitr reported earlier this year.

One of the meetings between Yakovenko, Banks, and Wigmore took place on August 19, 2016 — the same day that Steve Bannon was named to lead the Trump presidential campaign, according to Guardian reporter Carol Cadwalladr.

Bannon was a founder and top strategist of Cambridge Analytica, the data firm used by both the Trump and Brexit campaigns to micro-target voters — often using data that was illegally or improperly obtained, according to a report by Politico.

When Times reporters questioned Banks about the discrepancy in the number of Russia meetings he reported, the businessman with an estimated net worth of £250 million or about $335 million, according to the Financial Times, replied, “Bite me.”

Banks, The Times reported, admitted to two “boozy lunches” with the Russian ambassador as well as “a cup of tea,” adding, “it’s a convenient political witch-hunt, both over Brexit and Trump.”

But according to the report, that “cup of tea” — also attended by “Leave” campaign communications director Andrew Wigmore — involved discussion of a potential deal between Banks and a Russian mining tycoon to “consolidate” six gold mines.

But Banks has denied that the Russians or any Russian money played a part in the Brexit effort, to which he donated £12 million, or $16 million in United States cash —making him the single largest political donor ever in the U.K., according to a Guardian report.

According to emails obtained by The Times, Banks and Wigmore were introduced to Yakovenko by suspected Russian intelligence agent Alexander Udod, who was one of 23 such suspected spies kicked out of the U.K. after the poisoning of former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March of this year, according to tiger U.K.’s Metro news site.

One of those “boozy” lunches, the Times reported, took place just three days after Banks, Wigmore and right-wing politician Nigel Farage — the public face of the Brexit campaign — returned from New York City where they met with Trump, who had won the U.S. presidential election just days earlier. A photo from that meeting at Trump Tower is seen in the tweet posted above. After the meeting, Banks admitted to The Times, he gave phone numbers for several Trump transition team leaders to his Russian contacts.</s>Arron Banks, the British money man behind the U.K.'s 'Brexit' vote to leave the EU, had close ties to Russia and connected Russian officials with the Donald Trump team, British media reports.

Shortly after the United Kingdom narrowly voted to leave the European Union in what was known as the “Brexit” vote in June of 2016, Donald Trump posted a message to his Twitter account that had political observers scratching their head — “They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!”

“Is Trump claiming he was the driving force behind Britain’s decision to quit the European Union? Or that his troubled campaign, like Brexit, will end in surprise victory? Who knows, but as Trump likes to do when he asks: ‘Did Obama create Isis?’ or ‘Is Hillary a murderer?’ we can take the available facts and say: we don’t know, but that’s what people are asking,” wrote The Guardian newspaper after Trump’s puzzling Tweet.

Trump “seemingly used the reference to imply that he would win the U.S. election,” wrote The Washington Post, while conceding that on social media, “thousands of users questioned exactly what Trump meant by his triumphal prognostication.”

But a bombshell exposé in The Sunday Times of London on June 10 may answer the question of exactly why Trump called himself “Mr. Brexit.” According to the investigative report, the Trump and Brexit campaigns were closely linked — and the British businessman who bankrolled the Brexit campaign slipped contact information for several members of Trump’s transition team to Russian officials.

Arron Banks (pictured at center in the image at the top of this page) a 48-year-old British financier who owns a South African diamond mine according to his own statements in The Guardian, was a top donor to the “Leave” campaign that supported Britain’s exit from the European Union.

New reporting by The Times revealed that Banks met on at least three occasions with the Russian ambassador to the U.K. — even though he had previously acknowledged only one meeting with Alexander Yakovenko (pictured at the top of this page, right).

Yakovenko, Mother Jones magazine reported, has also met with Joseph Mifsud, the U.K.-based, Maltese professor who told Trump campaign foreign policy adviser that Russia possessed “thousands” of emails containing “dirt” on Democratic 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Mifsud has now disappeared, as The Inquisitr reported earlier this year.

One of the meetings between Yakovenko, Banks, and Wigmore took place on August 19, 2016 — the same day that Steve Bannon was named to lead the Trump presidential campaign, according to Guardian reporter Carol Cadwalladr.

Bannon was a founder and top strategist of Cambridge Analytica, the data firm used by both the Trump and Brexit campaigns to micro-target voters — often using data that was illegally or improperly obtained, according to a report by Politico.

When Times reporters questioned Banks about the discrepancy in the number of Russia meetings he reported, the businessman with an estimated net worth of £250 million or about $335 million, according to the Financial Times, replied, “Bite me.”

Banks, The Times reported, admitted to two “boozy lunches” with the Russian ambassador as well as “a cup of tea,” adding, “it’s a convenient political witch-hunt, both over Brexit and Trump.”

But according to the report, that “cup of tea” — also attended by “Leave” campaign communications director Andrew Wigmore — involved discussion of a potential deal between Banks and a Russian mining tycoon to “consolidate” six gold mines.

But Banks has denied that the Russians or any Russian money played a part in the Brexit effort, to which he donated £12 million, or $16 million in United States cash —making him the single largest political donor ever in the U.K., according to a Guardian report.

According to emails obtained by The Times, Banks and Wigmore were introduced to Yakovenko by suspected Russian intelligence agent Alexander Udod, who was one of 23 such suspected spies kicked out of the U.K. after the poisoning of former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March of this year, according to tiger U.K.’s Metro news site.

One of those “boozy” lunches, the Times reported, took place just three days after Banks, Wigmore and right-wing politician Nigel Farage — the public face of the Brexit campaign — returned from New York City where they met with Trump, who had won the U.S. presidential election just days earlier. A photo from that meeting at Trump Tower is seen in the tweet posted above. After the meeting, Banks admitted to The Times, he gave phone numbers for several Trump transition team leaders to his Russian contacts.</s>MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin made a new personal appeal to President Donald Trump for holding a summit meeting between the two leaders and improving ties between Russia and the United States.

Putin told a state TV interviewer that it was time for Trump to keep his campaign promise of promoting a friendlier relationship between the two countries. The interview was recorded Thursday – before Trump’s call for Russia to be readmitted to the Group of Seven countries – and published on Saturday.

“A lot of things deserve to be criticized” in Trump’s actions, Putin said. “But there’s one circumstance that I’ve mentioned previously: Trump keeps the promises that he made in his campaign.”

He went on: “One of those promises was to improve Russian-American relations. I hope that this also takes place. At any rate, we are ready for this. I believe that the ball is in America’s court.”

The interview highlighted Putin’s effort to continue to show personal deference to Trump even as the overall relationship between Moscow and Washington plumbs new depths. Putin has been referring to the U.S. president as “Donald” in public appearances and praising his acumen.

Russian officials, meanwhile, have made it clear that they’re eager to see a meeting between the two presidents that they say Trump initially proposed in a phone call with Putin in March. According to Russian officials and reports on state television, the main obstacle to such a meeting is the U.S. Congress and Washington foreign-policy establishment that are set against allowing ties with Russia to improve.

“The experience I have with the president of the United States tells me that even though his actions are often criticized, especially recently, including on the international arena and in the economic sphere, he is still a reflective person and he is able to listen and react to another person’s arguments,” Putin said. “All this tells me that dialogue can be constructive.”

Putin didn’t comment directly on a Wall Street Journal report that Austria had offered to host such a summit in Vienna. He said the possibility of a meeting between himself and Trump was discussed “from the very beginning, meaning after Mr. Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. We responded from the very beginning that such personal meetings were not just a possibility but were useful. . . . The only question is: Will the domestic political situation in the United States allow this to be done?”</s>“Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” U.S. President Donald Trump asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a telephone call on May 25. The Prime Minister had purportedly asked what exactly qualified Canada as a threat to American national security—this being, we are to understand, the reason America has decided to impose tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel.

Late on June 7, it was announced Trump will make only a very brief appearance at the Group of Seven summit in Charlevoix, Que. Trump’s advisers had said that the President was not much interested in attending at all, reportedly because German Chancellor Angela Merkel bugs him and British Prime Minister Theresa May—yes, that Theresa May—is “too politically correct.”

One fears we’re looking at the first major threat to international economic cooperation brought about by a G7 leader being told he can’t tell his “an eclectic mix of religious leaders walk into a bar staffed by a blonde” joke.

Not only does Trump seem to believe that his role as President is to eliminate one ally at a time until he can announce a winner at the end of his term, he seems to be building toward a season finale in which North Korea shows up to collect its all-expenses-paid American abandonment of the Korean Peninsula.

The second season will be a bomb.

The “Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” question was quite a scoop for CNN. Finally, some evidence that the President of the United States is aware of historical events not entirely invented to market his golf course and defended, when challenged by the expert opinion of historians, with a “How would they know that? Were they there?”

Thanks to Trump’s remarkable ability to inspire everyone who comes into contact with him to run leaking to the press in alarm, I got an inside view of the President’s newfound interest in history. Late this week, I received audio of a phone call between a university professor who does not want his name to be used in print and a President of the United States who only wants his name to be used in print, which I have dutifully transcribed.

“I have the President of the United States on the line for you,” a weary voice says.

 “Again?” a still-wearier voice responds. “Look, I have marking to do…”

“Hey! Harvard History Professor!” the President bursts onto the line.

“Actually, I teach at the University of Co—”

“Some people, not the best people, not very smart people, are saying that Canada wasn’t a country during the War of 1812, what are they talking about?” asks the President.

“Well, yes, Mr. President, Canada wasn’t even united into a single British dominion until 1867 and only became functionally independent following the Statute of Westminster in 1931. Of course, it wasn’t until 1982 that—”

“Ok, so, is that a conflict of interest?” says the President excitedly.

“No, Mr. President, I don’t think having been a British colony is a conflict of—”

“You sure? I have this great line, some of my best words, I was going to call these guys the ‘Group of Six Very Angry And Conflicted Trading Partners.’ ”

“I would not say that, Mr. President, I would def—”

“Well, I wasn’t going to say that their faces,” the President assures him. “I was going to tweet that someone should tell them I said it, like I am not even talking to them!“

“Your bravery inspires us all, Mr. President, but who exactly are you hoping will tell them that? Like, the Dutch? A mutual Facebook friend? Are you trying to cyberbully the rest of the G7? I’m trying to figure out your endg—”

“Wait, if Canada voted for Crooked Hillary, is that a conflict of interest?” the ever-hopeful President asks.

“Mr. President, the nation of Canada doesn’t vote in other countries’ elections, certainly not in U.S. elections. Canada is a country and we’ve been over this—political entities don’t have hands.”

“Could they vote with their feet?” the President demands.

“Countries do not have feet either, Mr. President, they exist only in law and—”

“Ok, so no feet, no feet, that’s good. Canada can’t kick me in the shins. That’s why we’re going to win: when the other guy has no feet, you can’t lose a trade war.”

“That’s a very positive attitude, Mr. President, but if you consider how the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act prolonged the Great Depression and how France and Germany were equally limbless—” the professor gamely tries to get in.

“So, I’ve been having Ivanka read to me about this War of 1812, and I’m worried, because Obama was so bad to our military, just so weak on war. Can our great soldiers still fight a war? I mean, not just against loser terrorists, but against a real army? I mean, when everyone lines up and plays the drums and then shoots their guns when the guy in the very nice hat yells at them—can our guys still do that?”

“Mr. President, wars haven’t been fought like that in over a century—”

“Look, I have a very good brain, my uncle was a great professor and scientist. I own a lot of hotels, a lot of people are saying they’re the best hotels. They’re the best hotels because I cover everything in gold. They cover all their military in fancy red coats. It’s very sad, no president before me has been able to get our very fine military and veterans fancy red coats. It’s because the aircraft carriers don’t have steam anymore—you can’t clean a coat with a magnetic catapult, it’s no good! I’m going to bring back the nice coats and make our aircraft carriers steam cleaners again.”

“I don’t even know how to respond to that, Mr. Presi—”

“Well, as I keep telling you, Mr. President, my Ph.D. is actually in music theory, but I’m not currently under federal investigation, never even finished reading War and Peace, so I’d say I’m at least as qualified to advise you as anyone else you bring—”

“That’s good, that’s good. I pick the best people. I’ll call you again before I talk with Little Rocket Man. But before I go—if 13 angry beavers and other woodland creatures chewed on the White House, could they make the roof fall on me?”

“I have to go Make Dinner Great Again, Mr. President, but, uh, don’t worry so much about the beavers. They build dams, which are like are like walls, but for rivers. Beavers are very tough on the border and lumber, you’ll get along great.”</s>It was an image that, in its Rockwellian presentation and characters, seemed to capture an emerging era.

European leaders stood arrayed on one side of a narrow conference room table, leaning in. On the other side: President Donald Trump, seated alone, his arms folded.

The photo, released Saturday on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Instagram account and later tweeted by Trump national security advisor John Bolton, fast became a Rorschach test for an increasingly troubled relationship.

Trump was clearly isolated. But was he making an overdue stand against an expiring global order? Or was he just the odd man out in the world's most powerful club?

The unreadable facial expressions make it impossible to know.

On the day after the Group of Seven summit blew up in spectacular fashion, with Trump using idle time on an airport runway to insult his host and repudiate an agreement he had made with allied leaders only hours earlier, emotions were far easier to divine.

Allies were indignant. They were defiant. Yet they were hardly shocked by the outcome of a critical global gathering that had gone worse than any that longtime foreign policy players had seen.

"It was not a surprise," said Norbert Röttgen, chair of the foreign affairs committee in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag. "The president acted and reacted in the childish way he could be expected to."

To the U.S.' closest partners, the pattern has become disturbingly familiar. Trump's abandonment of the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear agreement and his decision to impose protectionist tariffs on European steel and aluminum products have established a level of animosity between the United States and Europe that, by many measures, surpasses even the rift over the Iraq War.

The depth of exasperation showed in a Sunday afternoon statement from French President Emmanuel Macron's office.

"International cooperation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks," the statement said. "Let's be serious and worthy of our people."

For many in Europe, the question now is how best to preserve any kind of multilateral cooperation. Dealing with Trump's whims and last-minute changes of mind has proven a strategic nightmare.

"How is it possible to work this way if once you have agreed to something, two hours later the guy decides he doesn't agree with what he agreed with?" said François Heisbourg, a former French presidential national security adviser. "Is there any space for a multilateral order under these circumstances?"

Trump's choice to abandon the G-7 communique was announced in a pair of tweets as he prepared to lift off early from the two-day summit in Quebec City. The decision - which came with an attack on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for being "weak and dishonest" -- directly contradicted an announcement by Trudeau minutes earlier in which he declared that all seven member-states had signed the joint statement.

In that announcement, Trudeau had said the summit was "very successful," but he also said Canada would retaliate against metals tariffs that had been aimed at allies.

Following Trump's tweets, Trudeau's office issued a statement saying he "said nothing he hasn't said before - both in public, and in private conversations with the President."

The dispute was joined on Sunday by Larry Kudlow, Trump's chief economic adviser, who accused Trudeau of "betrayal" in advance of the president's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said that Trudeau had "stabbed us in the back."

How to handle Trump has become one of the most pressing issues confronting U.S. allies.

Röttgen, the Bundestag's foreign affairs committee chairman, said they have learned to anticipate his outbursts and U-turns, and should respond to them accordingly. He criticized Merkel's team for releasing the much-discussed photo.

"By portraying him as the naughty boy in the room, he will stick even more to his behavior and it will get worse," said Röttgen, who is a member of Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union. "We have to ignore his behavior and concentrate on what is left of the substance of the transatlantic relationship."

Just how much is left is a matter of debate. Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, wrote in his tweet of the photo that it was "Just another #G7 where other countries expect America will always be their bank. The President made it clear today. No more."

Others used the image to mock Trump: "Just tell us what Vladimir has on you," European Parliament member Guy Verhofstadt imagined Merkel saying. "Maybe we can help."

The relationship between the United States and its allies could be frayed even further if the trade war escalates - a scenario that Röttgen said he expects, with the United States in his view likely to move against German carmakers.

But Röttgen derived at least some hope from Trump's proposal for entirely tariff-free trade among allies. Although Trump coupled the idea with a threat, and most experts see the notion as far-fetched, Röttgen said it is at least a basis for discussion.

Of all European countries, Germany has the most to lose from a trade war with the United States. The United States had a $151 billion trade deficit in goods with the European Union last year. Germany alone, with its high-end automobile and appliance exports, accounted for $64 billion of that.

Trump has repeatedly complained on Twitter about German automobiles flooding the U.S. market and has asked his administration to examine possible tariffs as a way to curb their popularity among American consumers, a point he reiterated on Twitter on Saturday.

But amid the animosity, there were signs among otherwise frustrated allied leaders that they see Trump and his "America First" agenda as an aberration and not necessarily as expressive of a new reality.

Macron emphasized his belief that Trump's vision of America was at odds with American values.</s>LA MALBAIE, Que. -- Donald Trump held a free-flowing news conference as he departed the G7 summit on Saturday. It was his first visit to Canada as president of the United States, and he stayed about 24 hours. Here are some highlights from his comments:

On Canada and the summit: "It has worked out to be so wonderful. The people of Canada are wonderful, and it's a great country, and a very beautiful country."

On the state of global trade: "From the standpoint of trade and jobs and being fair to companies, we are really, I think, committed. I think they are starting to be committed to a much more fair trade situation for the United States, because it has been treated very, very unfairly....And I don't blame other leaders for that. I blame our past leaders. There was no reason that this should have happened."

On the North Korea summit: "I'll be on a mission of peace, and we will carry in, really -- in my heart, we're going to be carrying the hearts of millions of people, people from all over the world. We have to get denuclearization. We have to get something going. We really think that North Korea will be a tremendous place in a very short period of time. And we appreciate everything that's going on. We appreciate the working together with North Korea. They're really working very well with us."

On bringing Russia back into the G7: "I think it would be an asset to have Russia back in. I think it would be good for the world. I think it would be good for Russia. I think it would be good for the United States. I think it would be good for all of the countries of the current G7."

On the ultimate goal for global trade rules: "You want a tariff-free, you want no barriers, and you want no subsidies, because you have some cases where countries are subsidizing industries, and that's not fair. So you go tariff-free, you go barrier-free, you go subsidy-free. ....

"It's got to change. It's going to change. I mean, it's not a question of 'I hope it changes.' It's going to change, a hundred per cent. And tariffs are going to come way down, because people cannot continue to do that. We're like the piggy bank that everybody is robbing. And that ends."

On renegotiating NAFTA: "So two things can happen on NAFTA. We'll either leave it the way it is, as a threesome deal with Canada and with the United States and Mexico, and change it very substantially -- we're talking about very big changes. Or we're going to make a deal directly with Canada and directly with Mexico. Both of those things could happen."

On rating G7 friendships: "I would say that the level of relationship is a 10. We have a great relationship. Angela and Emmanuel and Justin. I would say the relationship is a 10."</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Trump insists relationships with other G7 leaders are "outstanding"

US President Donald Trump says he proposed the elimination of tariffs in talks at the G7 summit in Canada, as the major industrial nations struggled to resolve differences on trade.

Mr Trump said talks with fellow leaders were "extremely productive" despite tensions over his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

US allies were furious over the move, raising fears of a global trade war.

However, a joint communique was signed on trade and tariffs.

The communique, announced by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was signed by all of the G7 leaders.

Mr Trump left early for a landmark meeting with North Korea's leader.

He is travelling to Singapore to meet with Kim Jong-un on Tuesday to try to persuade him to give up the country's nuclear weapons.

Image copyright JESCO DENZE

What did Trump say?

Briefing reporters before he left the town of La Malbaie, in Quebec province, Mr Trump denied that the G7 summit had been contentious.

"No tariffs, no barriers. That's the way it should be. And no subsidies. I even said, 'no tariffs'," the US president said, describing his meetings with fellow Group of Seven leaders as positive "on the need to have fair and reciprocal trade".

"The United States has been taken advantage of for decades and decades," he continued, describing America as a "piggy bank that everyone keeps robbing".

But he said he did not blame G7 leaders for the "unfair" trade deals - instead blaming his American predecessors.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Who left their mark on President Trump at the G7 summit?

Angered by the high steel and aluminium tariffs, Canada, Mexico and the EU have all said they are all planning retaliatory measures.

President Trump warned against such moves, calling it a "mistake" and said if it gets as far as a trade war, then the US would "win that war a thousand times out of a thousand".

'Sticking points remain'

Jessica Murphy, BBC News, Quebec

The US president has made it clear he believes the removal of tariffs against his G7 allies should come at a price - and he doesn't expect the US to pick up the tab.

His statements on the sidelines of the contentious G7 summit come just weeks after his administration slapped metals tariffs on Canada, the EU and Mexico, who quickly announced their own retaliatory measures.

Sticking points also remain in the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) renegotiations between Canada, the US and Mexico, despite it being a key topic during the bilateral meeting between Mr Trump and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.

The American leader said a three-country deal would only be possible with substantial changes, and reiterated his interest instead in forming separate two-way trade accords with Mexico and Canada - an interest Canada has made clear it does not share.

While the consensus-based G7 might well agree on the benefits of both free and fair trade between economic allies, it appears what that could look like it still up for debate.

Why are there divisions?

On 1 June, the US imposed a 25% tariff for steel and 10% for aluminium on imports from the EU, Canada, and Mexico. Mr Trump said the move would protect domestic producers that were vital to US security.

The EU then announced tariffs on US goods ranging from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to bourbon. Canada and Mexico are also planning retaliatory moves.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dairy wars: Why is Trump threatening Canada over milk?

On Friday Canada's foreign minister called the tariffs "illegal ". European Council President Donald Tusk said they threatened the "rules-based international order".

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she wants the EU to act with restraint.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed all sides were willing to reach agreement.

What is the G7?

It is an annual summit bringing together Canada, the US, the UK, France, Italy, Japan and Germany, which represent more than 60% of global net worth between them.

Economics tops the agenda, although the meetings now always branch off to cover major global issues.

Russia was suspended from the group in 2014 because of its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. On Friday, Mr Trump made a surprise call for Moscow to be readmitted, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said other members were against the idea.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption China's President Xi Jinping invited Vladimir Putin to a friendly ice hockey match on Friday

Meanwhile, another international summit is being held in China. President Xi Jinping is hosting a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc, in the eastern city of Qingdao.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, as well as leaders from Iran, India, Pakistan, and four central Asian leaders, are taking part.

What else is being discussed at the G7?

The five themes for this year's summit are:

Inclusive economic growth

Gender equality and women's empowerment

World security

Jobs of the future

Climate change and oceans

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Canadian brewery marks G7 with special brew

Mr Trump was thought likely to miss the talks on climate change, the environment and probably gender equality on Saturday.

The US president was the odd man out on climate change during the G7 in Italy last year, later announcing his intention to withdraw from the landmark Paris agreement.

Iran is also a sticking point. Mr Trump recently ditched the 2015 agreement aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear programme. This angered the other signatories who have since sought to shore it up.</s>It was an image that, in its Rockwellian presentation and characters, seemed to capture an emerging era.

European leaders stood arrayed on one side of a narrow conference room table, leaning in. On the other side: President Donald Trump, seated alone, his arms folded.

The photo, released Saturday on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Instagram account and later tweeted by Trump national security advisor John Bolton, fast became a Rorschach test for an increasingly troubled relationship.

Trump was clearly isolated. But was he making an overdue stand against an expiring global order? Or was he just the odd man out in the world's most powerful club?

The unreadable facial expressions make it impossible to know.

On the day after the Group of Seven summit blew up in spectacular fashion, with Trump using idle time on an airport runway to insult his host and repudiate an agreement he had made with allied leaders only hours earlier, emotions were far easier to divine.

Allies were indignant. They were defiant. Yet they were hardly shocked by the outcome of a critical global gathering that had gone worse than any that longtime foreign policy players had seen.

"It was not a surprise," said Norbert Röttgen, chair of the foreign affairs committee in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag. "The president acted and reacted in the childish way he could be expected to."

To the U.S.' closest partners, the pattern has become disturbingly familiar. Trump's abandonment of the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear agreement and his decision to impose protectionist tariffs on European steel and aluminum products have established a level of animosity between the United States and Europe that, by many measures, surpasses even the rift over the Iraq War.

The depth of exasperation showed in a Sunday afternoon statement from French President Emmanuel Macron's office.

"International cooperation cannot be dictated by fits of anger and throwaway remarks," the statement said. "Let's be serious and worthy of our people."

For many in Europe, the question now is how best to preserve any kind of multilateral cooperation. Dealing with Trump's whims and last-minute changes of mind has proven a strategic nightmare.

"How is it possible to work this way if once you have agreed to something, two hours later the guy decides he doesn't agree with what he agreed with?" said François Heisbourg, a former French presidential national security adviser. "Is there any space for a multilateral order under these circumstances?"

Trump's choice to abandon the G-7 communique was announced in a pair of tweets as he prepared to lift off early from the two-day summit in Quebec City. The decision - which came with an attack on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for being "weak and dishonest" -- directly contradicted an announcement by Trudeau minutes earlier in which he declared that all seven member-states had signed the joint statement.

In that announcement, Trudeau had said the summit was "very successful," but he also said Canada would retaliate against metals tariffs that had been aimed at allies.

Following Trump's tweets, Trudeau's office issued a statement saying he "said nothing he hasn't said before - both in public, and in private conversations with the President."

The dispute was joined on Sunday by Larry Kudlow, Trump's chief economic adviser, who accused Trudeau of "betrayal" in advance of the president's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said that Trudeau had "stabbed us in the back."

How to handle Trump has become one of the most pressing issues confronting U.S. allies.

Röttgen, the Bundestag's foreign affairs committee chairman, said they have learned to anticipate his outbursts and U-turns, and should respond to them accordingly. He criticized Merkel's team for releasing the much-discussed photo.

"By portraying him as the naughty boy in the room, he will stick even more to his behavior and it will get worse," said Röttgen, who is a member of Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union. "We have to ignore his behavior and concentrate on what is left of the substance of the transatlantic relationship."

Just how much is left is a matter of debate. Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, wrote in his tweet of the photo that it was "Just another #G7 where other countries expect America will always be their bank. The President made it clear today. No more."

Others used the image to mock Trump: "Just tell us what Vladimir has on you," European Parliament member Guy Verhofstadt imagined Merkel saying. "Maybe we can help."

The relationship between the United States and its allies could be frayed even further if the trade war escalates - a scenario that Röttgen said he expects, with the United States in his view likely to move against German carmakers.

But Röttgen derived at least some hope from Trump's proposal for entirely tariff-free trade among allies. Although Trump coupled the idea with a threat, and most experts see the notion as far-fetched, Röttgen said it is at least a basis for discussion.

Of all European countries, Germany has the most to lose from a trade war with the United States. The United States had a $151 billion trade deficit in goods with the European Union last year. Germany alone, with its high-end automobile and appliance exports, accounted for $64 billion of that.

Trump has repeatedly complained on Twitter about German automobiles flooding the U.S. market and has asked his administration to examine possible tariffs as a way to curb their popularity among American consumers, a point he reiterated on Twitter on Saturday.

But amid the animosity, there were signs among otherwise frustrated allied leaders that they see Trump and his "America First" agenda as an aberration and not necessarily as expressive of a new reality.

Macron emphasized his belief that Trump's vision of America was at odds with American values.
U.S. President Donald Trump calls for "fair and reciprocal" trades between the United States and other countries, claiming that the United States is a "piggy bank that everyone keeps robbing".