Outgoing US President Donald Trump made a fleeting appearance at the start of the G20 virtual summit this Saturday and then went to play golf, while his counterparts from other countries debated measures against the COVID-19 pandemic 19.
Trump was scheduled to participate in the opening session of the summit, organized by Saudi Arabia but which is being held virtually, although his speech was closed to the media and the White House did not immediately provide information about it.
Less than two hours after his speech, however, the president went to his private golf club in Virginia, outside Washington, as he usually does every weekend.
Their escape came as other G20 leaders continued to engage in virtual conversations and, specifically, as many of them participated in a forum on pandemic preparedness and response.
The event was attended, according to a G20 press release, by King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron; the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; the Italian Prime Minister, Giusseppe Conte; and the presidents of Argentina, Alberto Fernández; South Korea, Moon Jae-in, and South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Trump has made no secret of his disdain for multilateral forums throughout his presidency, although he has participated in every G20 summit that has occurred since he arrived at the White House in 2017.
This Friday, Trump also participated virtually in the summit of the 21 economies that make up the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), where he spoke about the progress in his country to achieve a vaccine for the coronavirus.
The president has refused to admit defeat in the elections on November 3 in the United States, and has denounced without proof a massive fraud to not accept the victory of the president-elect, Joe Biden.
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