G7 leaders face wars abroad and divisions at home

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President Trump and other G7 leaders meet in the French Alps this week as wars, economic uncertainty and strains in the transatlantic alliance loom over the summit.

ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Geneva, Switzerland, today as leaders prepared to gather for the G7 summit in Evian, France, just across the border.

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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).

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FLORIDO: The meeting will open tomorrow with the world economy under pressure, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and sharp disagreements between President Trump and many of America's traditional allies. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley looks at what to expect.

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: The alpine vistas and blue waters of Lake Geneva may help calm esprits as the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., Canada, Japan and the U.S. sit down to deal with two wars, skyrocketing energy costs, a slumping world economy, and the list goes on. Dominique Moisi with think tank the Institut Montaigne says the Iran war will be high on the agenda, with President Trump likely to demand, again, that European allies help open the Strait of Hormuz.

DOMINIQUE MOISI: The pressures will be on the Europeans, and the Europeans will say, well, we all are in a mess because you've created a purely artificial, unnecessary crisis, and it's the entire world economy that is suffering.

BEARDSLEY: Four of the G7 members are Europeans, and they've been stunned by the dramatic changes in U.S. policy - the tariffs, the drop in support for Ukraine and a new U.S. national security strategy that actively takes a stance in European politics.

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JD VANCE: President Trump and I wish for your success, and we are fighting right here with you.

(CHEERING)

BEARDSLEY: Vice President JD Vance went to Budapest in April to campaign for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Hungary has been a thorn in the side of the European Union for more than a decade, undermining democratic institutions and blocking aid for Ukraine in its existential war against Russia. Vance's visit was unprecedented.

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VANCE: I'm not telling you exactly who to vote for. But what I am telling you is that the bureaucrats in Brussels - those people should not be listened to.

BEARDSLEY: Orbán was resoundingly defeated, and Trump is coming to Evian much weaker, says political scientist Brent Nelsen, director of the Tocqueville Institute (ph) at Furman University.

BRENT NELSEN: The war has not gone well in the Middle East. He's having problems with Israel. And he's, of course, at a much lower level of support in the United States. He's got midterms coming up. They don't look good.

BEARDSLEY: But the transatlantic alliance, usually essential to the success of the G7, doesn't look good either, says Brussels-based Ian Lesser, a distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

IAN LESSER: It's arguably the worst in many, many decades, and it touches many, many different things from trade to security to people-to-people relations.

BEARDSLEY: Personalities matter, says Lesser, and are on full display at such summits. There may be some casting about for a new Trump whisperer after the president mocked the British prime minister and the French president recently.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (Imitating French accent) No, no, no, I cannot do that, Donald. We can do that after the war is won.

I said, no, no, I don't need after the war is won, Emmanuel. We've had some very bad allies in NATO.

BEARDSLEY: Sandwiched between Russia and the U.S., the Europeans are coming together and getting stronger, says Furman University's Nelsen, and there is a sense they will have to go it alone at some point.

NELSEN: But also this recognition that they can't do it quite yet, and they're going to need to still be nice to Donald Trump.

BEARDSLEY: This G7 summit will also include a celebration of America's 250th birthday. And President Macron has invited President Trump to dine tete-a-tete after the summit at a place with more gold than the White House, the Palace of Versailles. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.

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