{"id":110449,"date":"2026-06-17T18:39:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/110449\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:39:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:39:01","slug":"hot-mics-catch-trump-carney-and-other-leaders-off-guard-at-g7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/110449\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Mics Catch Trump, Carney and Other Leaders Off-Guard at G7"},"content":{"rendered":"

As at many diplomatic gatherings, the real action at the annual Group of 7 summits often occurs on the sidelines, where world leaders mingle and make small talk that occasionally gets picked up by lurking microphones. These hot mics, as they are known, seemed to be working overtime on Tuesday, recording snippets of conversations that ranged from geopolitics and trade to the leaders\u2019 personal lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are friends again,\u201d said Ant\u00f3nio Costa, the president of the European Council, as he stood, flanked by President Trump and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy. Ms. Meloni had appeared to be distancing herself<\/a> from Mr. Trump in recent months, after the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, which is deeply unpopular in Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always been friends,\u201d Ms. Meloni insisted, smiling at Mr. Trump, according to video footage that also captured the moment.<\/p>\n

Mr. Costa was involved in another fascinating, if inconclusive, exchange with Mr. Trump. Huddling before the start of a session, Mr. Trump turned to him and said, \u201cYou understand,\u201d then added, \u201cGreenland.\u201d<\/p>\n

No other part of the conversation was picked up by microphones, leaving observers to let their imaginations run wild about Mr. Trump\u2019s previous threats to take over Greenland, which has been perhaps the most divisive single issue<\/a> between the United States and its European allies.<\/p>\n

Another exchange, between Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, was more revealing. Chatting about a deal made between Canada and China<\/a> on the imports of Chinese electric vehicles earlier this year \u2014 a deal that the Trump administration did not like \u2014 Mr. Carney could be heard telling the president that it covers \u201cless than three percent of our market, 49,000 cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought you\u2019d actually like that,\u201d Mr. Carney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s good,\u201d Mr. Trump replied. \u201cI like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Emmanuel Macron of France, the host, gave his guests an excuse for mild high jinks after he appeared to have left his wristwatch behind after lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s left his watch here,\u201d Mr. Carney said to the group. \u201cWe\u2019ve got his watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGive me it if he left,\u201d Mr. Trump said as others nearby laughed. \u201cGimme.\u201d<\/p>\n

The personal habits of Italy\u2019s prime minister also provided a feel-good moment as the leaders milled around before their first meeting. When Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany asked Ms. Meloni if she had smoked her first cigarette of the day, she replied that she had not smoked \u201csince the first of May.\u201d Bathing in praise from the group, she threw up her arms in mock victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have a patch?\u201d Mr. Carney asked, grabbing his own arm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As at many diplomatic gatherings, the real action at the annual Group of 7 summits often occurs on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[55774,55776,14843,28958,234,55775,57,53673,55777,55612,75],"class_list":["post-110449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-antonio-1961","tag-carney","tag-costa","tag-donald-j","tag-france","tag-giorgia-1977","tag-greenland","tag-group-of-seven","tag-jay","tag-meloni","tag-trump"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116766911173011542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}