During his first public appearance at the 2025 Group of Seven summit on Monday, President Donald Trump revisited a long-standing grievance concerning Russia’s expulsion from the G7, while also criticizing Canada’s former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This occurred during a bilateral meeting with Canada’s current Prime Minister Mark Carney.
In a media availability that took place at the start of their expanded discussions, Trump stated, unprompted, that the G7 “used to be the G8” until “Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in.” He argued, “I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were President four years ago. But it didn’t work out that way.” He noted that the group made this decision about eight or nine years ago, claiming, “They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake.”
Trump reasoned that the absence of Russia from discussions made addressing issues related to the country more complicated, suggesting that the ongoing conflict could have been avoided.
It’s worth noting that Trump’s comments ignored the fact that the decision to suspend Russia’s membership was a collective choice made by the G7 nations— the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and Japan— in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014.
While Trump maintained that Trudeau was partially to blame for Russia’s ousting, Trudeau was not Prime Minister when this decision took place. In March 2014, Trudeau had just over a year of experience as leader of the Liberal Party, while Canada was under the governance of the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Trudeau took office in November 2015.
As Trump continued to take questions, a reporter inquired whether he believed Russia should be readmitted to the G7. Trump responded that while he wouldn’t advocate for Russia’s return, he reiterated that removing them was “a big mistake” and again misattributed the decision to Trudeau, asserting, “Obama didn’t want him. And the head of your country, the proud head of your country, didn’t want him. This was a big mistake.”
He claimed that President Vladimir Putin felt “very insulted” by the expulsion and added, “Putin speaks to me. He doesn’t speak to anybody else. He doesn’t want to talk because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G8.”
For a third time, Trump incorrectly placed responsibility for Russia’s removal on Trudeau, arguing that he had convinced others to support the action. He concluded with, “He [Putin] was thrown out, and he’s not a happy person about it. I can tell you that — he won’t speak to the people that throw him out, and I agree with him.”
The situation prompted Prime Minister Carney, who became Canada’s leader in March after Trudeau’s resignation, to interrupt Trump during a lengthy response regarding immigration policy. He called for reporters to leave the room to allow the meeting to commence, emphasizing the pressing issues to be discussed.