President Trump didn't play along with the usual narrative at the G-7 summit, and the liberal media predictably characterized him as the villain:

Even before then, Mr. Trump had left himself the outlier in the annual session. By departing before the end, he skipped sessions about climate change, oceans and clean energy — ceding not only America’s leadership on those topics, but also its very seat at the table.

Lost in this breathless "transcription" of events is the question of whether America should lead on so-called "issues" such as climate change, oceans, and supposedly "clean" energy.

A tardy Donald Trump created a distraction Saturday when he showed up late for a G-7 meeting on women’s empowerment.

The U.S. president arrived several minutes after the start of the breakfast meeting between G7 leaders and the gender equality advisory council that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created for this year’s summit in the Charlevoix region of Quebec.

Trump missed Trudeau’s introductory statement at the meeting and entered the room while council co-chair Isabelle Hudon, who is Canada’s ambassador to France, was speaking.

The rapid-fire clicks of cameras intensified as Trump made his way into the room — to the point that the noise of all the cameras almost drowned out Hudon’s remarks.

Trump was late and rude at the so-called "women's empowerment meeting," which I'm sure has never "empowered" a single woman. I sincerely hope Trump's lateness was intentional.

Let's step back and look at the larger picture. Most people have heard of the G-7, but very few people know what it's actually all about. People are vaguely aware that the G-7 is a group of industrialized nations who get together every year, but few people know what actually goes on.
You can see what actually goes on here. Some of the highlights of the agenda:

1) "Economic growth that works for everyone." What an odd thing to aspire to! In capitalism, economic growth doesn't work for everyone--namely, it doesn't work for those who don't produce things that people want to buy, it doesn't work for people who are lazy, or don't work hard, and so on.  Growth works disproportionately for those who efficiently produce what people want, and those who have useful job skills. Growth that works "for everyone" sounds like liberal code for redistribution schemes.

2) "Gender equality and women's empowerment." We have had gender equality for decades in the G-7. The place where it doesn't exist is in Muslim countries. When Trump showed up late for that meeting, do you think he was interrupting a discussion about women's rights in Saudi Arabia?

3) "Climate change and clean energy." The climate changes all the time. We observe it, but don't cause it. These are code words for more taxes, redistribution, and subsidies for cutting-edge Don Quixote-style technology.

4) "Oceans" (2 sessions!). The oceans are fine. I just checked, they're still there, and still quite wet. But what about checking out what's happening on land masses, or better yet, what's happening to people who live on them?

You would expect a meeting of the leaders of the most important countries to be concerned about fighting terrorism, reducing taxes and regulations, and reducing trading barriers. That last issue was the one that President Trump focused on, to the dismay of the other attendees who wanted their usual painless photo op where they could virtue signal about women or the environment.

But to their surprise President Trump focused on the important things, reducing global trade barriers, even suggesting the total elimination of all tariffs in all G-7 countries. This would greatly spur economic growth, if agreed to.

But don't expect the media to focus on that. Rather than honestly reporting that Trump focused on our top international economic priority, access to foreign markets, they will portray Trump as a boor and an unenlightened unenvironmentalist. For me, the defining photo was the one the liberal media is peddling of Angela Merkel staring Trump down while Trump, with John Bolton at his side, looks impassive, like Gandalf on the bridge of Khazad-Dum when he told the Balrog, "You shall not pass!"

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.

Image Credit: Noahnmf, via Wikipedia // CC BY-SA 4.0