(Newswire.net — December 5, 2019) — Television cameras “captured” leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands as they appear to mock US President Donald Trump at a reception at Buckingham Palace ahead of the NATO summit on Tuesday evening.
CBC footage shows that French President Emanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau and Mark Rutte of the Netherlands were clearly having a good time talking to Princess Anne.
Johnson, according to the recording, asks Macron “Is that why you were late?” to which Trudeau added “He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top.”
Mr. Macron then appears amused – telling the five “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he announced …” However, as his back is turned to the camera, the rest of his comments are inaudible.
Mr. Trudeau was later heard commenting on President Trump’s entourage “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor!” Princess Anne also appears to join in, although she cannot be heard in the footage.
While Mr. Trump is not mentioned by name, the conversation appears to centre on the US President’s lengthy statements to the press and his unorthodox approach to diplomacy. Like during the previous NATO summit, Trump did not abide by the protocol, but used press releases from allied leaders to respond to international media questions.
Mr. Trump stated that the US is financing NATO more than any other North Alliance member. However, the US is frequently bending NATO towards its own interests and is the No1 arms seller to all NATO countries. That is why the fact that Turkey as a respective NATO member is arming itself with jets and rockets made in Russia, deeply disturbs the relationship between those two nations.
The oil was added to the fire by the French President who called NATO “brain-dead,” which aggravated President Trump who spoke with Macron on Tuesday afternoon in front of the world media.
Macron and Trump answered questions from reporters for a long time, which was not envisioned by the protocol, and Macron replied that he “stays on his claims” about NATO as a “brain-dead” alliance, which Trump called “offensive”.
An interview by European leaders with the Canadian prime minister, accidentally captured by a Canadian television camera, will certainly not improve the atmosphere at a military-political alliance summit in which relations are already strained primarily by Turkey’s military operation in Syria. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan endorsed Mr Trump, however, saying that what the French President said is irresponsible.