This photo of Trump meeting with Boris Johnson perfectly sums up their relationship
- Photographer Stefan Rousseau captured a moment between President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the second day of the annual G7 Summit in France that perfectly sums up their close-but-tense relationship over the years.
- The image shows Trump and Johnson meeting for the first time since Johnson became prime minister in July. The two can be seen both pointing a finger and laughing at each other.
- The two world leaders have pointed fingers at each other in the past, and not always in a friendly way.
President Donald Trump on Sunday sat down with Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the second day of the annual G7 Summit in Biarritz, France. The meeting provided an opportunity to snap a photo of the two world leaders that perfectly sums up their close-but-tense relationship that has developed over the years.
The three-day summit featured discussions surrounding global trade, nuclear treaties, and environmental issues which have dominated discourse in the days leading up to the leadership meeting.
The image, taken by Stefan Rousseau, shows Trump and Johnson meeting for the first time since Johnson took on the role of Prime Minister last month. The two can be seen both pointing and smiling at each other as those around the table look on with less amusement.
Trump and Johnson have grown closer in recent months, and Trump even went as far as to hail the UK leader as "Britain Trump" following his recent win. He also told The Sun in June that he "always liked" Johnson, and thought he was a "very good guy," and "a very talented person."
But the relationship between the leaders of two of the world's largest economies hasn't always been as friendly.
Trump said in 2015 that London had become a hotbed for crime because of immigration and repeated false claims that police avoid "radicalized" parts of London because they are afraid for their lives. The then-presidential candidate used the claim to justify his own campaign comments about banning Muslims from entering the US.
In response, Johnson, who served as Mayor of London at that time, called out Trump for a "quite stupefying ignorance" and deemed him "unfit" to be president.
"I would invite him to come and see the whole of London and take him round the city," he said, "except that I don't want to expose Londoners to any unnecessary risk of meeting Donald Trump."
And prior to the 2016 election, Johnson said he was "genuinely worried" about Trump winning the presidency and said being mistaken for the Trump while in New York was "one of the worst moments."
"I was in New York and some photographers were trying to take a picture of me and a girl walked down the pavement towards me and she stopped and she said 'Gee is that Trump?'" he told ITV's The Agenda in 2016.
"It was one of the worst moments."
But Johnson has softened his stance on Trump since becoming Britain's leader. In an interview with Politico in June, Johnson declined to criticize Trump, and said he found it "hard to disagree" with his assessment of former Prime Minister Theresa May as "foolish."
Still, Johnson remains critical of Trump's trade war actions. Ahead of their G7 meeting. Johnson said Trump risks taking the blame for a global recession if he continues his trade war with China, and called for a "dialing down of tensions."
"Apart from anything else, those who support the tariffs are at risk of incurring the blame for the downturn in the global economy irrespective of whether or not that is true," Johnson told reporters on Saturday.