Trump’s influence already generating drama among world leaders as G20 gets underway

Donald Trump’s influence is already causing behind-the-scenes drama as Group of 20 talks are getting underway here this week after one of Trump’s top global allies put up resistance to a joint leaders’ statement, a move diplomats interpreted as meant to curry favor with the incoming administration.

Donald Trump’s influence is already causing behind-the-scenes drama as Group of 20 talks are getting underway here this week after one of Trump’s top global allies put up resistance to a joint leaders’ statement, a move diplomats interpreted as meant to curry favor with the incoming administration. Argentine President Javier Milei, who last week became the first world leader to meet face-to-face with Trump since his election, threatened to block a final communiqué over disputes about language related to taxation on the ultra-rich and gender issues, according to two diplomats familiar with the matter. While it’s not unusual for leaders’ summits to involve some back-and-forth over a final statement, Milei’s roadblocks were seen by diplomats as curious since Argentina had already agreed to a declaration about taxing the ultra-rich over the summer — only to reverse itself after Trump was elected president. It was just one example of Trump casting a long shadow over a pair of world leader summits taking place in South America this week. Even as President Joe Biden works during his final major summits to promote American leadership and burnish his legacy, leaders are looking past him and toward the next occupant of the Oval Office. Trump’s string of surprising selections for important Cabinet posts last week was a dominant topic of conversation in private back-hallway conversations among delegations at the APEC summit in Peru, according to diplomats, particularly the choice of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to lead US intelligence services and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to head up the Pentagon. “Everyone was talking about the new cast of characters,” one Asian diplomat said after the summit had ended.