ANALYSIS — President Joe Biden on Wednesday headed to Italy for a G7 summit that lacks a central theme — but with the Middle East on fire, Europe drifting to the right, China flooding markets with cheap goods and his own political future in doubt. He also left one day after his son, Hunter Biden, was found guilty by a Wilmington, Del., jury on three gun-related charges, possibly slowing any momentum he picked up from recent positive economic trends and a state visit in France that honored D-Day veterans while talking of increased cooperation with America’s oldest ally.
The trip also is set to provide yet another 2024 campaign split screen. That’s because while Biden will be huddling with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, former President Donald Trump is slated to be in Washington on Thursday. The presumed Republican presidential nominee is scheduled to speak to Business Roundtable CEOs, as well as House and Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The planned meetings will be Trump’s first with congressional Republicans since he became a felon, convicted on May 30 by a 12-person jury in Manhattan. A senior White House official on Tuesday signaled Biden’s biggest focus during the annual G7 summit would be on the world’s hotspots, as well as trying to rally support to counter’s China’s economic practices — one of the few issues that mostly unites Republican and Democratic lawmakers at home, even if they often disagree on.
