President Donald Trump on Friday called for Russia to be invited back to the G7, telling reporters the country should be at this weekend’s meeting of major world leaders.

“Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting?” Trump said as he departed the White House for the summit in Quebec. “Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run.”

Russia was booted from the then-G8 in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea, which world leaders condemned as “illegal.”

“International law prohibits the acquisition of part or all of another state’s territory through coercion or force,” former President Barack Obama and other world leaders said in a statement at the time. “To do so violates the principles upon which the international system is built.”

Trump’s call for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 came amid increasing tensions between the U.S. and key allies, as well as the president’s increasingly warmer stance on Russia.

Trump said he was attending the G7 summit to “[straighten] out unfair Trade Deals” with Canada, France and other close U.S. allies, he tweeted early Friday.

In May, the president announced his administration would impose steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the European Union — all of which announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. in recent days. Trump sparred with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Twitter in the lead-up to the G7 summit, which he will leave early to travel to Singapore for his high-stakes meeting with Kim Jong Un.

The French and Canadian leaders have each vowed to address the tariffs with Trump at the summit. Meanwhile, Trump continued to talk tough Friday, even threatening to “terminate” the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he has repeatedly characterized as unfair to the U.S.

“We are not going to live with the deals the way they are,” Trump said. “European Union treats us very unfairly, Canada very unfairly, Mexico very unfairly.”

Trump’s deteriorating relationships with Trudeau and Macron — both of whom he has previously lavished with praise — come as the U.S. finds itself increasingly isolated from key allies over Trump’s isolationist policies, including his decisions to pull out of the Paris climate agreement and to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

While he’s taken a tougher stance on traditional U.S. allies, Trump — who remains under investigation as part of an inquiry into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and the Kremlin — has charted a warmer course with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump repeatedly praised Putin during the 2016 campaign. He has also refused to condemn the Russian strongman over the Kremlin’s interference in the U.S. presidential election, at one point suggesting he trusts Putin’s denials of wrongdoing over the findings of his own intelligence agencies. While his administration has hit the country with sanctions over its “malign activity around the globe,” Trump himself has appeared reluctant to punish Putin.

Nevertheless, Trump told reporters Friday that he has been “Russia’s worst nightmare.”

“I think Putin’s probably going, ‘Man, I wish Hillary won,’” Trump said.</s>(CNN) President Donald Trump on Saturday doubled down on his call for Russia to be readmitted into the G7 and blamed his predecessor for Russia's aggression in Crimea.

"I think it would be an asset to have Russia back in," Trump said during an impromptu press conference at the summit. "I think it would be good for the world. I think it would be good for Russia. I think it would be good the United States. I think it would be good for all of the countries of the current G7. I think the G8 would be better."

Russia was suspended from the group -- then known as the G8 -- in 2014 after the majority of member countries allied against its annexation of Crimea. It was the first violation of a European country's borders since World War II.

Trump suggested that Russia be allowed back into the global group despite their continued occupation of Crimea.

"I would say that the G8 is a more meaningful group than the G7, absolutely," Trump said. He also blamed former US President Barack Obama for Russia's move into that nation.

Read More</s>"Russia should be in this meeting," Trump told reporters upon leaving the White House for the summit, which is being held in Charlevoix, Canada. "They should let Russia come back in, because we should have Russia at the negotiating table."

Russia was suspended from the group -- then known as the G8 -- in 2014 after the majority of member countries allied against Russia's annexation of Crimea, which Russia continues to hold.

Asked in an interview earlier this week about what would need to happen for Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine, Putin told Austria's ORF broadcasting corporation that "there are no such conditions and there can never be."

Trump's comments come at a time when Trump is on the outs with other members of the G7. On Thursday, Trump engaged in a bitter back-and-forth with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over Twitter, both of whom he'll meet face-to-face on Friday.

Trump is expecting a knock-down, drag-out fight with top US allies over trade during his time at the conference, held in remote Quebec. It's a battle he believes he can win, but which he's unenthusiastic about waging in person, people familiar with his thinking say. On Thursday, Macron said the leaders would not rule out a 6+1 communique as opposed to the traditional document signed by all leaders at the end of the summit with shared goals and principles.</s>President Donald Trump says Russia should be reinstated to the Group of Seven, going against the other countries that ousted Russia in 2014 after its annexation of Crimea.</s>Trump calls for Russia, ousted from group of leading industrial nations after annexing Crimea, to be reinstated

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump calls for Russia, ousted from group of leading industrial nations after annexing Crimea, to be reinstated.</s>With a gob-smacking offer to reinstate Russia to the Group of Seven, President Trump has rekindled suspicions that he is in effect repaying Russia for help in the 2016 presidential election. The Post reports:

President Trump on Friday said Russia should be readmitted to the Group of Seven leading economies, breaking with other world leaders who have insisted that Moscow remain ostracized after its 2014 annexation of Crimea. “Now, I love our country. I have been Russia’s worst nightmare. . . . But with that being said, Russia should be in this meeting,” Trump said Friday as he left the White House. “It may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. . . . They should let Russia back in.” Trump’s comments, made just hours before arriving in Canada for the annual G-7 summit, have the potential to further upend talks with other leaders who were already fuming about the U.S. leader’s protectionist trade policies.

He hasn’t been Russia’s worst nightmare, of course. He has been a gold mine, helping to undercut the Western alliance, accepting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s representation that he didn’t know about hacking, effectively ceding Syria to Russia and Iran, and now this. Trump, it seems, is no longer bothering to conceal his willingness to play buddy-buddy with Moscow.

Meanwhile, Republicans remain in full denial about Russia’s intervention during the election on Trump’s behalf.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, after summoning the nerve to agree with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) that there is no evidence to support Trump’s cockamamie “spying” theory, quickly retreated to false, pro-Trump talking points. He declared, “In all of this, in any of this, there’s been no evidence that there’s been any collusion between the Trump campaign and President Trump and Russia.” In case that wasn’t clear, he added: “Let’s just make that really clear. There’s no evidence of collusion. This is about Russia and what they did and making sure they don’t do it again.” Wrong, wrong, wrong.

We have evidence that top Trump campaign officials, including the president’s son and son-in-law, met with Russian operatives who offered “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. We have evidence that foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was told by an intermediary, Joseph Mifsud, that Russians had “dirt” on Clinton. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about such contacts. After WikiLeaks released hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton, Trump publicly called for them to keep it up. (“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”) The Moscow Project summarizes:

Trump falsely complains a spy was implanted into his campaign and he should have been warned about characters like Paul Manafort and Carter Page. However, his campaign was warned. CNN recently reported:

We also know that Alexander Nix, former head of Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm hired by the Trump campaign, reached out to Julian Assange, head of WikiLeaks, widely regarded by U.S. intelligence as a Russian cutout. The Daily Beast reported last year that Nix “told a third party that he reached out to Assange about his firm somehow helping the WikiLeaks editor release Clinton’s missing emails, according to two sources familiar with a congressional investigation into interactions between Trump associates and the Kremlin. . . . The interchange between Nix—whose company made millions from the Trump campaign—and Assange represents the closest known connection between Trump’s campaign and Wikileaks.”

In short, there is ample evidence Russia meddled to influence the election on Trump’s behalf and that there were efforts by the campaign to obtain Russian help. Trump and multiple members of his campaign (e.g. now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions; Trump himself regarding the Trump Tower meeting) have repeatedly made false statements to investigators. The result, so far, has been 19 indictments and five guilty pleas. There is plenty there there.

And since Russia’s successful operation to assist Trump, we have seen what would normally be seen as “payback” in the form of Trump’s inexplicable deference to Russia. That includes giving code -word intelligence to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in the Oval Office to refusing to personally criticize Putin to his determination not to acknowledge Russia interfered in our election on his behalf. Now we see Putin has hit the jackpot with an invite to return to the G-7. Putin’s 2016 campaign operation has paid off in spades.

UPDATE: Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich, increasingly talked about as a 2020 candidate, posts a sane, well-reasoned response. “Russia was kicked out of the G-8 because of its invasion and annexation of Crimea. Since that time, Moscow has encouraged and directed a separatist insurgency in Eastern Ukraine, intervened in support Syria’s murderous dictator and the war crimes that he has perpetrated, interfered in the U.S. Presidential election, waged an information war to undermine Western democracies, attempted to assassinate opponents on the sovereign territory of our allies, and made common cause with China to undermine the post-WWII international security system and the democratic values embedded in it.” He concludes, “There has been no indication of any change of course on Russia’s part. President Trump’s idea of renewing Russian membership in the G-7/G-8 does not protect or defend the national security interests of the United States or our allies.”</s>United States President, Donald Trump, has called for an end to Russian expulsion from the Group of Seven leading economies in the world.The President had, on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday, made a case for Russia’s readmission into G-8, which became G-7 following the annexation of Crimea.Russia was expelled from the G-7 four years ago following its role in the Crimean crisis.Washington Post quotes Trump as saying that Russia should be readmitted to the G-7, thereby breaking with other world leaders who have insisted that Moscow remain ostracized following its involvement in the 2014 Crimean crisis.“Now, I love our country. I have been Russia’s worst nightmare … But with that being said, Russia should be in this meeting,” Trump said as he left the White House.“It may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. … They should let Russia back in,” he added.Trump had tweeted that he was heading to Canada for the annual G-7 summit, where he also hopes to hold talks that will mostly center on the “long time unfair trade practised against the United States.”He said that from there, he would go to Singapore and hold talks with North Korea on Denuclearization.“Won’t be talking about the Russian Witch Hunt Hoax for a while!” he had promised; while informing that he looked forward to straightening out unfair trade deals with the G-7 countries, and that, “if it doesn’t happen, we come out even better!”</s>President Trump on Saturday doubled down on his calls for Russia to be reinstated to the G-7 group of nations, saying that the group would be more meaningful if that country could be brought back into the fold.

“I would rather see Russia in the G-8, as opposed to the G-7. I would say that the G-8 is a more meaningful group than the G-7, absolutely,” he told reporters as he left the summit in Canada.

He later said that Russia’s return to the group would be “an asset” and that it would be a good move for peace in the world.

“We’re not looking to play games,” he said.

Trump said Friday that Russia should be a part of the talks — a move that was likely to find little agreement among the group. Russia was expelled from the group — which now includes France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. — following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

When Trump was pressed about the annexation of Crimea, he placed the blame on President Barack Obama for failing to handle the situation.

“He was the one who let Crimea get away — that was during his administration,” he said, adding, “Crimea was let go during the Obama administration and Obama can say all he wants, but he allowed Russia to take Crimea. I may have had a much different attitude.”

Trump’s call for Russia to be included did gain some support, however, in the form of new populist Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who tweeted that it was “in the interests of everyone” for Russia to be included once again.

Trump also told reporters Saturday that he has not spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin in some time.

Russia remains a thorny topic in the U.S., where investigators have been looking into how it may have sought to influence the 2016 election.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t know that admitting that he talks to President Donald Trump on the regular probably isn’t a good thing, considering that the Trump administration is currently being investigated for Russian collusion in the 2016 election. But that’s exactly what the Russian leader did Tuesday.



During an interview with an Austrian news outlet, Putin calmly noted that he talks with his play cousin, Trump, so much that the two might as well have a shared cellphone plan.

After being asked about his relationship with Trump, considering, oh, I don’t know, the permeating stench of Russia sauce coming off the Trump administration and “special counsel Robert Mueller’s February indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian organizations,” CNBC reports, Putin didn’t miss a beat. 



“Indeed, Donald Trump and I have, firstly, met more than once at various international venues,” Putin said, according to an official transcript available on the Kremlin’s website. “And secondly, we regularly talk over the phone.”

Don’t all the Trump loyalists find this upsetting? Because, you know, America!

Of course they don’t, because the president is still a xenophobic, racist trash can who fills his piehole with trash chicken. No respectable person with any kind of decent palate eats KFC. Feel free to @ me.

Nevertheless, neither the White House nor the Russian Embassy has responded to CNBC’s request for comment, I guess because both administrations assumed, when they purchased the burner phones, that there was an understanding that it should never be mentioned.

The White House website claims that the two presidents have spoken a total of eight times, but the Maury test has determined that this is a lie. Probably didn’t help matters that during Trump’s unhinged Friday-morning rant, he claimed that Russia should be at the G-7 meeting, which was called the G-8 until Russia got the boot for the annexation of Crimea.

“Russia should be in this meeting,” Trump told reporters upon leaving the White House for the summit, which is being held in La Malbaie, Canada, CNN reports. “They should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.”

And in this rare case I agree with Trump; Russia should be at the table, since Trump’s in bed with them playing “You hang up first.”</s>The president is expected to attend discussions about the economy and security but has indicated he may leave early, missing discussions on the climate and gender equality.

President Donald Trump is heading into the G-7 meeting in Canada with a sense of tension between the U.S. and the other countries – the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, and Japan – according to the BBC. Among the topics with which the other six countries take issue with Trump are recently-imposed trade tariffs and his call Friday for Russia to once again be included in the annual meeting. Regarding Russia, the president said,

“Why are we having a meeting without Russia? Would recommend Russia should be a part of it… You know, whether you like it or – and it may not be politically correct – but we have a world to run and in the G7, which used to be the G8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in.”

Russia was removed from the former G-8 as a result of their annexation of Crimea in 2014. Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel stated Friday that all members except Trump agreed that Russia should not be allowed back in until there was progress with Ukraine. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed a less than enthusiastic response to the thought of being brought back into the fold.

The G-7 member countries account for over 60 percent of the world’s net worth. As such, economics is often at the top of the agenda, and this year is expected to be no different. Tariffs are expected to be the center of conversation on this topic. Among those tariffs is a 25-percent tariff on imported steel and a 10-percent tariff on aluminum imported from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. This month, President Trump lifted an exemption for U.S. allies in hopes that they would negotiate new trade agreements according to Fox News.

Both Canada and France have called this move illegal. CNN Money explains the basis for this claim. Countries have the ability to challenge tariffs via a panel of judges at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Switzerland. The WTO allows the imposition of tariffs if national security is threatened. Trump claims that trade with U.S. allies who were previously exempt from steel and aluminum tariffs did pose a threat to national security because trade relations with those countries has resulted in the loss of approximately 4.6 million jobs since 2000. Many economists question whether this poses a threat to national security, but, as trade expert at the Economic Policy Institute Robert Scott says, “The WTO can’t really force you to change your trade policy.” In fact, they have never ruled on such a case because either the tariff were dropped or the cases never moved forward. No previous case has been as significant as President Trump’s though.

The five topics of discussion at this year’s G-7 summit are expected to be inclusive economic growth, gender equality and the empowerment of women, world peace and security, the future of jobs, and climate change and oceans. Trump is expected to attend for the topic of economic growth but is likely to not be present for discussions on gender equality and climate change. POTUS himself stated that,

European Council President Donald Tusk has expressed a concern about Trump’s positions on climate change, Iran, and trade.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has asked EU members to react to U.S. tariffs with restraint.
Donald Trump again calls for Russia to be reinstated into the group. Russia was suspended after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.