G7 Summit: Hot Mic Moments and Past Blunders

What a week it’s been for French sound engineers!

The G7 meeting in Évian-les-Bains has been full of hot mic moments, with leaders repeatedly caught saying things they didn’t plan on having broadcast to the world.

Here’s what they’ve been saying at this meeting (that we weren’t supposed to hear), followed by a few classics of the genre from the past.

G7 hot mic moments

Trump to, well, the world: Entering the leaders’ meeting on Wednesday after the others were already seated, U.S. President Donald Trump said: “I am the boss.” There was nervous laughter. He is indeed the boss.

Meloni has given up smoking: Asked by Germany’s Friedrich Merz if she’d had a cigarette that morning, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni responded that she hasn’t smoked “since the 1st of May.” Canadian PM Mark Carney then asked Meloni: “Do you have a patch?”

Carney on EVs: The Canadian leader could be heard speaking to Trump, presumably referring to Carney’s deal with China on electric vehicles: “Less than 3 percent of our market, 49,000 cars,” he said, adding: “It’s a cap … I thought you’d actually like that.” Trump answered: “That’s good. I like that.”

Threat or geography lesson? Trump was overheard speaking with European Council President António Costa. “You understand?” Trump said before pausing and looking at Costa. “Greenland.”

Macron on ‘difficult’ Trump meeting: “Yesterday we had a difficult discussion in front of the camera,” French President Emmanuel Macron told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, referring to Trump.

Not on Macron’s watch: Noting Macron left his wristwatch in the meeting room, Carney said: “He’s left his watch here. We’ve got his watch.” Trump chimed in: “Give me it if he left. Gimme.”

From the archive

Here are a few hot mic moments that have lingered in the memory…

Trudeau laughs at Trump: At a royal reception for NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace in 2019, then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, then-Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Princess Anne, and then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson were caught discussing their experiences dealing with Trump.

“Is that why you were late?” Johnson asked Macron. “He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,” Trudeau replied. “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor,” the Canadian said.

Trump later called Trudeau — who is now Katy Perry’s plus-one — “two-faced.”

Sweary Kiwi: In 2022, then-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wasn’t happy with opposition leader David Seymour after he attacked her party’s record in government during a question time session in parliament. She leaned toward an aide and said of Seymour, “he’s such an arrogant prick.”

‘Bigoted woman’: What should have been a standard campaign event in 2010 for Gordon Brown, then the British prime minister, turned into a political train wreck.

Labour voter Gillian Duffy briefly talked to Brown on the campaign trail in Rochdale, northern England, where she challenged him on immigration and demanded he tackle rising debt.

Afterward, Duffy told reporters that Brown was a “very nice man” and that she intended to vote Labour. Brown was less than impressed. “That was a disaster — they should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that? Ridiculous,” he lashed out in his car, not realizing that his microphone was still on. “She was just a bigoted woman,” Brown added.

Brown lost the election to David Cameron and everything’s been just fine in British politics since then!

Let’s bomb Russia: “My fellow Americans,” said Ronald Reagan in 1984. “I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” The then-U.S. president wasn’t actually declaring war, and was instead sound-checking his microphone before his weekly radio address in 1984. His comments were not broadcast live but later leaked to the public.

Mad cows and Englishmen: In 2005, while France and Great Britain awaited a decision on whether Paris or London would host the 2012 Olympics, French President Jacques Chirac blasted the U.K. during what he thought was a private conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-German Chancellor (and Russia enthusiast) Gerhard Schröder.

“The only thing that they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease,” Chirac said of the Brits. “You cannot trust people who have such bad cuisine.”