Lawrence Freedman
This picture was taken by Jesco Denzel, an official German government photographer, on 8 June 2017 during the 44th G-7 summit, held in Quebec. It came during a break from an intense set of exchanges on trade and tariffs. The photo was released the next day by the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her Instagram account, with an innocuous caption explaining that this was a ‘spontaneous meeting between two working sessions.’ It soon went viral.
It is not hard to see why Merkel found irresistible a picture that puts her at the centre of a dramatic encounter. It captures a moment of conflict and tension. Her pose is confident and self-assured, leaning forward with her hands on the table giving President Trump her hardest stare. Trump is the only person seated, staring back with his arms defiantly folded.
Standing beside Trump is his national security advisor John Bolton. Watching, with an anxious look, is the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, also with his hands folded. We can see the profile of French President Emmanuel Macron as if he is trying to get a word in. We know British Prime Minister Theresa May is there because that is clearly the back of her hair. Out of the picture is the host, Justin Trudeau, who was standing to Trump’s left, apparently reading some papers. More pictures of the same encounter, distributed by other key participants, can be found, here, including Trump’s, in which he is strangely lost in shadows, and Macron’s, in which he is finally getting his chance to address Trump, and is gesticulating as he does so.
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