A candid moment caught on video during a reception at Buckingham Palace appears to show a huddle of world leaders openly mocking a noticeably absent President Trump after a tense first day at the NATO summit, Business Insider reported.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte all feature in the clip which has now been viewed more than 8.6 million times on Twitter .
The leaders of the 29-member NATO alliance flashed friendly smiles as they gathered together at Buckingham palace on Tuesday.
However, it would appear the pleasant niceties were only for the cameras those leaders were aware were on them, as some were later caught apparently bad-mouthing one of their own in what they believed to be a private conversation.
Although Trump is never explicitly mentioned by name in the video, he certainly appears to be the topic of conversation.
At the beginning of the clip, British PM Johnson can be heard asking French President Macron, “Is that why you’re late?”
Although Macron’s response is inaudible, Canadian PM Trudeau interjects and says, “He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top.”
After a cut in the edited candid video, Princess Anne appears to have joined the group of gossiping leaders.
Trudeau appears to reference U.S. officials and says, “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor,” earning laughs from his audience.
Although the cut in the video offers no context as to who the Canadian leader is referencing, many assume the topic of conversation was still Trump.
Earlier in the day, Macron was involved in a 38-minute press conference with Trump.
Later, the U.S. leader held another conference with NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg which lasted 53 minutes.
Trump is known for holding long, extensively rambling press conferences, and according to CNBC , the itinerary for this particular interaction suggested it would only last 20 minutes.
During the conference, Trump attacked Macron for his “very, very nasty” comments regarding NATO.
The French president had previous remarked that the summit, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, was experiencing ” brain death “.
“You can’t just go around making statements like that about NATO,” Trump told Stoltenberg of the leader’s comments. “It’s very disrespectful.”
However, Trump later insisted he is on good terms with Macron, and even lauded his relationship with Canadian leader Trudeau.
Following their Tuesday meeting, Trump remarked that the two have a “very good” relationship, and Trudeau later supported this by adding the relationship between the two countries has “never been stronger.”
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That relationship certainly seems to have taken a hit though, following the release of the mocking video on Twitter.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation shared the 25-second clip on Twitter, which has prompted an unhappy Trump to call his Canadian counterpart “two-faced” for leading the apparent bashing.
“I find him to [Trudeau] to be a very nice guy but the truth is I called him out on the fact that he’s not paying 2% [of GDP on Canada’s defense budget] and I guess he’s not very happy about it,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
Trump was taking questions alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel where he made the remarks about the Canadian leader.
“He’s not paying 2% and he should be paying 2%,” he continued. “It’s Canada, they have money and they should be paying 2%. So I called him out on that and I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it but that’s the way it is.”
Trump later canceled his remaining press conferences on Wednesday and announced via Twitter he would be leaving England.
“When today’s meetings are over, I will be heading back to Washington,” he wrote online. “We won’t be doing a press conference at the close of NATO because we did so many over the past two days.”
h/t: Business Insider , CNBC
