Trump’s possible return looms over deals Biden cut at G7 summit

BARI, Italy — For all the ambitious plans that President Joe Biden and his counterparts unfurled at the summit meeting that ended Saturday, the cold reality is that many of the leaders may not remain in office long enough to see them ripen.

A populist, far-right movement rippling through Europe and the U.S. threatens to unseat Biden and some of his closest allies, jeopardizing the deals on Ukraine’s defense forged over the past few days.

The traditional “family photo” taken at the Group of Seven (G7) summit of the wealthiest democracies largely portrays an embattled set of world leaders who’ve fallen out of step with some of their constituents. Successors would be free to take much of what they produced in southern Italy and tear it up if they saw fit.

According to April polling from NBC News, Biden’s approval rating stands in the low 40s and he’s running about even with former President Donald Trump. If he is defeated in November, Ukraine will lose its most valuable partner in keeping Russian President Vladimir Putin from overrunning the country.

Emmanuel Macron, France’s centrist president, recently called snap elections, giving rise to the prospect of the far right gaining control of France’s legislature and forcing him into a power-sharing arrangement.

European elections this month saw right-wing forces make gains in Germany, throwing into question moderate leader Olaf Scholz’s chancellorship.

“This is the last time this group will meet in this configuration with these leaders,” Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, said ahead of the summit. “It all conveys a sense of urgency and the stakes around this G7. And it has a feeling to me of [the] last chance to do something big before