World leaders laughed awkwardly as President Trump arrived late to a G7 summit meeting and declared: “I’m the boss.”
The president made the crass joke as he showed up on Wednesday morning in Évian-les-Bains, France, for the third and final day of the summit. The 80-year-old arrived almost an hour after the meeting was scheduled to start.
It’s not clear why Trump was delayed. A White House source claimed to NBC that he had been “on some very important calls with people back in the States.”
The network reports that it would have been between 3.30 and 4.30 a.m. Eastern Time.
The White House Rapid Response X account shared a clip of the cringe moment, captioning the footage: “I’m the boss. 🤣— @POTUS arrives for a working session at the G7 summit in France.”
It failed to mention that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had been forced to sit in his place behind a name card that read “Trump” until that moment, as French President Emmanuel Macron started the meeting.
A self-satisfied smile flashed across Trump’s face after he delivered his one-liner, as he walked around to his seat next to Macron, who greeted Trump with a more restrained handshake. “Hello! How are you?” the Frenchman asked.
Trump then addressed the media, saying, “Would you like to stay for the meeting? It’s OK with me.” French officials at the event then escorted the press out of the room.
At the top of the bill for this year’s G7, which is composed of some of the U.S.’s closest allies, are the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The summit comprises the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
All have welcomed the news that an agreement has been reached between Washington, D.C., and Iran, saying in a statement that it “provides an historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities.”
CNN reports having seen a leaked copy of the 14-point memorandum of understanding, which says Iran will be able to trade oil as soon as the agreement is signed, that it will never be allowed to make nuclear weapons, and that it will end the conflict in the Middle East on all fronts, including Israel’s excursion into Lebanon.
It makes no mention of the Strait of Hormuz, which has become a key flashpoint in the war and where Iran has exerted significant influence over the global fuel market.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung insisted in a post on X that the “supposed text of the MOU that was obtained by CNN does not reflect the language of the actual MOU.”
At a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Wednesday, Trump also said that the agreement is not final.
“If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head,” he said, speaking about Iran.
He went on to end the rant by criticizing former President Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, telling the world’s assembled media that Tehran had “laughed at Obama” and “said he’s a stupid son of a b---h.”
