Chaos at Trump’s G20 summit as Europe issues stunning ultimatum over ‘family photo’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arrived at the G20 finance summit in the Blue Ridge Mountains facing a backdrop that was anything but picturesque.

Donald Trump’s renewed strikes on Iran over the weekend had pushed bond markets to record highs and a fresh trade war launched against Canada last week had darkened the skies.

Bessent had also angered European officials a month earlier, when the US Treasury sold euros to buy yen in a joint intervention with Japan to support the currency. 

Then came the traditional ‘family photo’ which set off a diplomatic firestorm as Europe’s finance ministers refused to pose with their Russian counterpart. Moscow has been shut out of G20 events since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Europeans said they would send deputies if Kremlin finance minister Anton Siluanov was allowed to appear.

‘The joint approach of the Europeans, for which I am also very grateful, ultimately led to this family photo taking place without the Russian finance minister, without the Russian delegation,’ German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told reporters.

Bessent defended the decision to invite Siluanov, saying: ‘I know that some Europeans had a sour taste, but I think it’s very important to engage.’

Yet the diplomatic row was only one of several fights hanging over the summit in Asheville, North Carolina, where the Trump administration was hosting finance ministers from the ‘Group of 20’ countries. 

Bessent was also facing a $40 billion tariff fight with Canada, whose prime minister Mark Carney had accused the Trump administration of ‘doing memes’ instead of taking negotiations to end the impasse seriously.

And the Treasury secretary appeared in no mood to back down, mocking Canada’s economic size, telling CNBC as the summit got underway: ‘I don’t think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are.’

Despite the turmoil, Bessent used the gathering to make the case that America was setting the pace for the global economy.

‘The US is at a very special place in the world because we are the AI superpower and we are pulling away in computing power,’ he said, crediting Trump’s regulatory, tax and energy policies.

He urged other countries to ‘come with us and grow’, arguing that growth was the answer to the mountain of debt confronting the global economy.

‘The world is awash in debt,’ Bessent told reporters. ‘The only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of it.’

The IMF expects the US economy to grow more than twice as fast as the eurozone or Canada this year.

But America’s strength has not insulated it from the shocks created by Trump’s policies. The IMF said this summer that the war in Iran had slowed US growth, while German economists said Trump’s war and tariffs had weakened what otherwise would have been Germany’s strongest growth year since 2022.

European officials also warned that the administration’s actions were creating instability far beyond America’s borders.

‘I think that in this world where tensions are numerous, it’s probably no time to add tensions, especially between two historical partners,’ French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told reporters.

German central bank chief Joachim Nagel said US officials now understood why Europeans ‘were not really enthusiastic about the fact that there was no prior coordination’ over the currency intervention.

Klingbeil was even more blunt: ‘The past few months have shown that uncertainty is poison for economic growth.’

‘The Iran war, the ongoing tariff disputes with the U.S. and distortions of competition like we are experiencing from China, all of this leads to instability,’ he added.

JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon welcomed Bessent’s effort to bring business leaders into the discussions.

‘For the first time at G20, the Treasury has given the private sector a place at the table. Good policy is made better when those who lend, hire, invest and build have a voice in shaping it,’ Dimon said. 

‘We are here as America celebrates our 250th anniversary. This is a moment to reflect on how far our nation has come. And it is the perfect time to rededicate ourselves to the values that made this great nation of ours — freedom, liberty, and opportunity.

‘We encourage the other countries of the G20 to join us as we look back on this historic milestone for the United States, and as we look forward together to growth and opportunity for the next 250 years.’

The finance ministers’ meeting was also a preview of the headline G20 leaders’ summit hosted in December, to be hosted by Trump at his Doral resort in Florida.

By then, the president will have faced the November midterms, which will be viewed in part as a referendum on his economic management of the US.

With gas prices still stuck above $4 a gallon, Europe’s finance ministers may be the least of Trump’s concerns.