Trump’s influence already generating drama among world leaders as G20 gets underway

Rio de Janeiro (CNN) — Donald Trump’s influence is already causing behind-the-scenes drama as Group of 20 talks are getting underway here this week after one of Trump’s top global allies put up resistance to a joint leaders’ statement, a move diplomats interpreted as meant to curry favor with the incoming administration.

Argentine President Javier Milei, who last week became the first world leader to meet face-to-face with Trump since his election, threatened to block a final communiqué over disputes about language related to taxation on the ultra-rich and gender issues, according to two diplomats familiar with the matter.

While it’s not unusual for leaders’ summits to involve some back-and-forth over a final statement, Milei’s roadblocks were seen by diplomats as curious since Argentina had already agreed to a declaration about taxing the ultra-rich over the summer — only to reverse itself after Trump was elected president.

It was just one example of Trump casting a long shadow over a pair of world leader summits taking place in South America this week. Even as President Joe Biden works during his final major summits to promote American leadership and burnish his legacy, leaders are looking past him and toward the next occupant of the Oval Office.

Trump’s string of surprising selections for important Cabinet posts last week was a dominant topic of conversation in private back-hallway conversations among delegations at the APEC summit in Peru, according to diplomats, particularly the choice of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to lead US intelligence services and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to head up the Pentagon.

“Everyone was talking about the new cast of characters,” one Asian diplomat said after the summit had ended.

And though Trump did not directly arise during Biden’s conversations with the leaders of Japan, South Korea and Peru, according to White House officials, his return was hinted at during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s opening remarks during his final summit with Biden on Saturday.

“China is ready to work with the new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences,” Xi said as his meeting with Biden got underway.

Biden, who spent two hours speaking with Trump in the Oval Office before flying to Lima, has not been able to offer any specifics about what the new administration might has in store.

“The incoming administration is not in the business of providing us assurances about anything, and they’ll make their own decisions as they go forward,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday after the meeting with Xi.

Still, for leaders wondering what the next four years will hold, the dispute over the final G20 statement might offer a clue.

Officials gathering in Rio said they believed Milei was emboldened by Trump’s election and was looking to lay the groundwork for a new center of power among likeminded leaders even before Trump takes office.

Brazilian officials were working to patch up the differences ahead of the summit’s start, and it was possible the communiqué would note Argentina’s opposition in the sections it would not sign onto.

Yet to many involved in the discussions, the episode suggested the contention that colored world leader summits during Trump’s first presidency may be poised to return.

“You can already see the Trump effect taking hold,” one Western diplomat said as the summit was getting underway. “Conservatives like Milei are angling to create an alliance with him before he even comes into office. It’s a preview of what the next four years will look like.”

In Rio, Biden was scheduled to attend an event on combating hunger and poverty, and he is expected to make new US pledges on climate and development, though many of his fellow leaders now regard those as symbolic moves that will be swiftly erased by the incoming administration.

On Sunday, Biden acknowledged his time in office was short.

“It’s no secret that I’m leaving office in January,” Biden said after an aerial tour of the Amazon, where a two-year drought has led to wildfires and dried-up riverbeds. “I will leave my successor and my country a strong foundation to build on, if they choose to do so.”

Another official in Rio voiced concerns that Trump’s expected withdrawal from agreements like the Paris climate accord could inspire leaders like Milei to follow suit, leading to major fractures in the group.

“(The Ukraine war) is already pitting countries against each other,” the official said. Russia is a member of the G20, and many countries in the bloc — particularly those in the so-called Global South — have not joined in western attempts to punish Moscow.

“Trump will only cause more divisions, and more divisions mean less leverage and less influence,” the official went on.

Speaking Monday morning, a top aide to Biden acknowledged countries were looking ahead to the transition in the US. But he said Biden was still commander in chief.

“We have a system, fundamentally, that’s predicated on one president at a time,” said Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser. “President Biden is that president, he will be handing off power in January, and it will be up to a new administration to decide what to do with it.”

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