After the party comes the hangover.
President Donald Trump is a lifelong teetotaler. But he still had a blast Sunday night, marking his 80th birthday with a military flyover and a bumper bill of UFC cage fights on what he dubbed “one of the most incredible evenings in the history of the White House.”
Pumped up by his memorandum of understanding to end the Iran war, he said with a touch of exaggeration that he was the first US president to make Middle East peace.
But the fun had to end sometime — even for a president who shrugged off critics who said he defiled the dignity of the White House with gladiatorial prize fights and insulted Americans struggling to pay for groceries with an evening of excess.
There’s probably nothing Trump would like to do less than spend the first days of his ninth decade with European leaders with whom he’s got a tense history.
But that was his lot as Air Force One lifted off the tarmac at just after 3:15 a.m. Monday and he raced to France to the G7 summit.
Hoarseness in Trump’s voice — after a night cheering the UFC fisticuffs — told the story of the morning after.
Back home, it was time for the worst part of a party — the clean-up.
When Trump gets home in a couple of days, the teardown will be advanced and any remnants of the towering “Claw” lighting rig will be all that is left from one of his favorite days as president.
Another attempt by the president to put his stamp on Washington also proved to be temporary — his name etched next to John F. Kennedy’s on Washington’s performing arts center. Trump’s name was just removed on the order of a judge, but the president’s blushes were spared by a large white tarp on Monday. A Kennedy Center spokesman told CNN the covering was to enable repair work to the marble.
Another Trump legacy project is also looking green about the gills: An algae infestation clouds the newly painted blue bottom of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Trump’s renovation project is part of a bubbling scandal over the $14 million cost of a no-bid contract.
With problems piling up, it was no surprise that Sunday’s glow didn’t extend to the genteel French spa town of Évian-les-Bains on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Worsening reviews for Trump’s Iran agreement risked becoming a mood-killer for a president who nevertheless claimed it was a “very powerful document.”
But back in Washington, Republican Sen. James Lankford said: “We all have questions. No one’s seen it.”
It’s not clear how longer it will be politically sustainable for the administration to delay publication of the MOU until after a formal signing ceremony planned for Switzerland on Friday.
Critics warn that the president may simply have fixed a problem he caused by starting the war — Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and key issues such as Iran’s nuclear and missile programs haven’t been resolved.
But Vice President JD Vance told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday that the agreement encapsulates all US concerns because the Tehran regime understands it will not accrue economic benefits without addressing them.
“What the MOU does is set up a framework whereby the Iranians get the benefits of the bargain by meeting their obligations under the bargain,” Vance said. Still, his revelation that the MOU is based on a “general document” that runs to only a page and a half is likely to fuel concerns over Trump’s strategy.
Trump has never shown much love for the G7.
Public showdowns like the one in Canada with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2018 exemplify the fracturing of transatlantic ties during his two terms. Still, such kerfuffles also built his America First brand back home.
Trump left last year’s summit — again in Canada — early.
French President Emmanuel Macron seems to be trying to forestall another disappearing act by scheduling a lavish dinner after the summit Wednesday at the Palace of Versailles for a president who loves pomp. The evening will also celebrate America’s 250th birthday.
Macron and Trump started both of the US president’s two terms as friends — thanks largely to the French leader’s efforts to flatter his visitor to try to keep him inside the Western tent, rather than pulling it down from outside.
But the wars in Ukraine and Iran and a MAGA worldview that offends European sensibilities drove them apart. There was an undercurrent of tension when Macron congratulated Trump on his “celebration” and did his best to show interest in the strong performance by a French UFC fighter on Sunday night.
Trump seemed a little bored when Macron listed the goals of the summit. But after taking to social media earlier this year to mock the state of the French president’s marriage and claiming to reporters that “nobody wants him” because his term ends next year, Trump courteously declared they were “special friends.”
But controversy is brewing over a French digital tax on US tech giants. “If they do, I have no choice but to charge a 100% tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France,” Trump told the New York Post in an interview.
More walking on eggshells is expected Tuesday in the powerhouse economies club featuring the US, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.
Some members are fuming they weren’t told in advance about the Iran war that rocked their economies. Most are “middle powers,” which Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said this year must band together to resist Trump.
Shock among Europeans over the president’s claim on the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland as well as his tariff wars have reinforced a growing sense that Trump’s America is not only no longer a reliable ally — it may be becoming an adversary.
Strains in another alliance might further spoil Trump’s mood.
He will come face-to-face with Keir Starmer a day after the beleaguered British prime minister vowed to ban social media for children under 16, a move sure to infuriate Trump’s tech oligarch friends. And earlier this month, the British government rebuked Vance after he blamed the stabbing of an 18-year-old college student in Southampton, England, on a “mass invasion of migrants.”
So much for the special relationship rapport conjured by another White House party — King Charles III’s visit in April.
International presidential trips are always grueling as jet lag, tedious diplomatic rituals and endless days strain even the youngest and fittest in the White House entourage.
But the visit is also a new test for a president who’s now turned 80 — amid intense speculation about his health — and who has appeared sleepy in some recent Oval Office events. The White House says Trump is in excellent health and has mocked media reports about his closed eyes.
As with former President Joe Biden, Trump’s performance abroad will come under particular scrutiny — not least because the 45th and 47th president played the biggest role in pointing out the 46th’s declining capacities.
But it will be party time again before long.
In a move sure to cause a political storm, Trump is co-opting official 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4 to star in another Washington spectacular.
“We are going to host the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a “TRIBUTE TO AMERICA,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday.
And, like any good party host, he said he’d choose the playlist.
CNN’s Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
