Officials from Europe and other leading economies are mounting a campaign to draw Donald Trump and his administration towards the mainstream on trade and currency policy ahead of international economic talks in Germany this week.
Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury secretary, will meet fellow Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers in the spa town of Baden-Baden beginning on Friday. The gathering comes amid uncertainty over Mr Trump’s anti-globalisation ethos and will be a test of international efforts to pull the US president away from the protectionist “America First” agenda he has set out ahead of G7 and G20 summits in May and July.
Mr Mnuchin is expected by many G20 officials to strike a more emollient tone than the US president — as he has in recent public statements over China and the US dollar. This contrasts with Mr Trump's more aggressive complaints about Beijing as a “grand champion” of currency manipulation and the dollar’s high valuation.