'I'm the boss', Trump says at G7, as he warms to Ukraine's war aims

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday told a roomful of global leaders "I'm the boss", as he and other G7 heads acknowledged Ukraine's improved battlefield fortunes with a unified pledge of support and fresh sanctions against Russia.

Trump's comment - a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of an unspoken truth hanging over the Jun 15-17 summit of the Group of Seven Western powers in the French resort of Evian-les-Bains - followed a joint leaders' statement that could bolster Kyiv's growing leverage in potential peace talks with Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his allies came to the G7 hoping to convince Trump that Ukraine's fightback is delivering results, and that Russia is in no position to dictate terms for any peace deal.

The joint statement and comments from leaders suggest Trump has warmed to Zelensky's argument after years of scepticism. A G7 summit in Canada last year ended without any joint stance on Ukraine.

However, any hopes of strongarming Moscow into peace talks still rely on Trump commitments, which can be elusive. It was unclear if bilateral Trump-Zelensky talks would take place, and it also remains to be seen if Trump will allow waivers to lapse on sanctions restricting Russian oil exports, now that he has secured a preliminary Iran deal.

"I'm the boss," Trump told G7 chiefs and reporters as he arrived to take his seat at a session on global economic security, where leaders were due to discuss supply chains for critical minerals and macroeconomic imbalances.

"There has been a change in position on the part of the United States and President Trump," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters. "There is a position that is harder toward Russia and more realistic, in our view, of the situation on the ground of the war."

Trump’s Iran Deal Sets Tone For Talks

G7 chiefs also welcomed a preliminary peace deal between the United States and Iran and said they were ready to help implement it.

They said they would make efforts to diversify energy supply routes to reduce dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blocked for most of the duration of its war with the US, and increase stocks.

Trump did, however, stress on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding with Iran was not final, and that he could resume a bombing campaign if it was not honoured.

"If I don't like it, if they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, OK?" he said.

Although European allies appeared supportive of the preliminary memorandum in public, diplomats cautioned that getting a lasting deal on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programme as well as its support for proxy forces in the Middle East is no small challenge.

Critical Minerals

France is now pushing partners to sign a joint statement on critical minerals that could include measures to help the West reduce its reliance on China and shield investors from countermeasures and dumping, diplomats said.

Some industries around the world nearly ground to a halt after Beijing imposed export curbs on permanent magnets made of rare earths.

Measures under discussion in recent months have included price supports, market standards, subsidies and guaranteed purchases, as well as ways to scale up private investment in critical mineral supply chains outside China. Any measures announced at the G7 are likely to be only first steps.

The United States in early 2026 proposed a trading bloc for critical minerals. However, countries are at odds over how this bloc could operate, especially in the context of the White House's "America First" agenda.

Economic Imbalances

G7 leaders were also due to discuss how to rebalance global trade and address "predatory competition", mainly from China. France summarises the imbalances as: "China produces too much, the U.S. consumes too much and the Europeans invest too little."

Alarm is growing in Europe at China's trade surplus and its move up the value chain, in what analysts describe as a "second China shock" following its dominance of low-value industries in the 2000s. The surplus stands at €360 billion ($400 billion).

Beijing rejects EU claims of unfair subsidies and has repeatedly vowed "strong" countermeasures to the EU's proposed "Buy European" and revised tech sovereignty rules.

G7 leaders were also due to discuss AI over lunch, including the liability of bots and agents, and how AI presents truth and falsehood with tech bosses including OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.