Own Correspondent|Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and Justin Trudeau have scrambled to wriggle out of their embarrassing diplomatic blunder where they mocked Donald Trump behind his back and caused the humiliated President to quit the Nato summit early.
The three leaders each moved to defuse the friction with their famously thin-skinned US counterpart, who scrapped a scheduled press conference and jetted out of London on Wednesday night.
Macron raged that the video – said to be captured by freelance cameraman Andy Laurence and handed to broadcasters by Nato – had surfaced at all and refused to be pressed on the gossip which was caught on hot-mic.
The French premier said: ‘I am not going to comment on stolen videos. That video wasn’t supposed to be filmed in that room.’
Relations between Macron and Trump were already prickly after the French President branded Nato ‘brain dead’ – comments the US leader slammed as ‘very nasty’.
The British Prime Minister pleaded ignorance when grilled by reporters about his part in the Palace gossip circle and said: ‘I really don’t know what is being referred to there.’
Asked if he had been laughing at the President, he added: ‘Complete nonsense. I don’t know where that has come from.’
His Canadian counterpart, who was blasted by Trump as ‘two-faced’, also sought to squirm his way out of the awkwardness by insisting that they were not ridiculing the President but merely expressing surprise he chose to announce details of an upcoming G7 summit.
Trudeau said: ‘We were all surprised and I think pleased to learn that the next G7 will be at Camp David. I think that was an unscheduled announcement and I think everyone’s team, every different leader has teams that every now and then have their jaw drop at unscheduled surprises like that video itself for example.’
The Canadian PM had a quiet word and a handshake with Trump as he arrived at the summit on Wednesday, and later tried to shrug off the episode.
He said: ‘As you all know, we have a very good and constructive relationship between me and the President.’
But asked if the gaffe had given him pause for thought, Trudeau said that ensuring the focus of attention remained on matters of substance ‘is something that we’re all going to try to do a little harder.’
After watching the viral clip, Trump tweeted that he would leave the summit without holding a scheduled press conference, bringing an acrimonious end to the military alliance’s 70th anniversary gathering.
The President wrote: ‘When today’s meetings are over, I will be heading back to Washington. We won’t be doing a press conference at the close of NATO because we did so many over the past two days.’
At around five o’clock UK time he boarded Marine One at the Grove Hotel in Watford and flew to the runway where Air Force One was preparing to take off.
In the bombshell clip, Trudeau makes the most cutting comments, laughing about Trump’s lengthy Q&A sessions with reporters and saying even the President’s staff were shocked at some of his actions.
Source|CNN/Daily Mail