Donald Trump started his first overseas presidential journey as a rock star, walking down a red carpet when he arrived in Saudi Arabia and leaving the country with a coveted $100 billion arms deal.

One week and three countries later, the president risked losing his momentum in liberal Europe – where it was his predecessor, Barack Obama, who once received a hero's welcome.

The setting could hardly be more dramatic: Friday's G7 meetings kicked off in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina, an ancient Greek stone amphitheatre on the island of Sicily that dates from the 3rd century B.C. – complete with a nine-plane flyover trailing the Italian tricolor hues.

His first meeting before the summit officially kicked off was with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an hour-long final shot at acquiring the kind of praise he's accustomed to before European leaders tear into him.

The president hosted Abe at the White House and his Mar-a-Lago resort back in February, where they appeared to hit it off.

And Abe was the latest world leader to publicly flatter Trump, praising his visit to the Middle East and his address to NATO on Thursday.

This year's G7 summit got underway on Friday with a ceremony for world leaders (left to right) European Council President Donald Tusk, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a meeting before the G7 Summit on Friday in Taormina, Italy

Trump and first lady Melania arrived in Catania, Sicily on Thursday for the last leg of their 9-day overseas diplomacy tour

'Unfortunately,' Abe told reporters, 'this time around we won't be able to play golf together.'

The president said he and Abe would cover many topics, including North Korea, which he said 'is very much on our minds.'

'It's a big problem, it's a world problem, but it will be solved at some point. It will be solved, you can bet on that,' Trump said. North Korea has conducted a series of recent missile tests, rattling its Pacific neighbors.

The White House was struggling to control a damaging news cycle on Friday that was left over from a NATO meeting Thursday in Brussels, Belgium.

Trump is wrapping up a nine-day overseas trip, the first of his presidency, with a 2-day stint in Sicily

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Trump lashed out at Germany during a meeting there with European officials, saying: 'The Germans are bad, very bad' on trade issues.

Spiegel chose a German word, however, that means 'evil.'

White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed on Twitter that 'it's not true' Trump branded Germany as 'bad' – despite media reports that he was in a nearby cafe, not in the meeting, at the time.

Chief White House economic adviser Gary Cohn contradicted him an hour later, however, telling a pool reporter: 'He said they're very bad on trade.'

'But he doesn't have a problem with Germany,' Cohn quickly added.

After that exchange, the White House unceremoniously cut off all contact with the traveling press's print pool for the day.

But not before the president himself strode past reporters and said, without prompting, 'Great win in Montana' – a reference to the special-election victory of a Republican who 24 hours earlier had been criminally cited for physically assaulting a journalist.

The sweeping vistas of Sicily open up behind the remains of the Ancient Theatre of Taormina, a structure built by Greeks 2,300 years ago

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was on hand for the meeting, officially called the 'Summit of the Heads of State and of Government of the G7,' the group of seven most industrialized economies, plus the European Union

The opposition? Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron (right) could be impediments to Trump's trade philosophy at the G7 summit

Trump's Friday morning meeting with Shinzo Abe led him to insist that aggression from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (shown) 'will be solved, you can bet on that'

At the G7 itself, Trump will focus his energy on trade policy and economic growth on Friday, in addition to securing multinational funding for the fight against terrorism.

He'll also talk about cyber security, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn told reporters.

'Just arrived in Italy for the G7,' Trump tweeted Friday morning. 'Trip has been very successful. We made and saved the USA many billions of dollars and millions of jobs.'

'Getting ready to engage G7 leaders on many issues including economic growth, terrorism, and security,' he added on Twitter.

Trump began his meetings on Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a foreign leader he considers to be a friend and a personal ally following the weekend they spent at the president's Palm Beach, Florida resort.

Abe was originally the only head of government Trump set aside time to meet with on his first day in the seaside town of Taormina, but he added a brief 'pull-aside' chat with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday.

Trump will spend most of his time in group working sessions with Abe, May, and heads of state from Canada, France, Germany and Italy.

The large group sessions will spare Trump from focused lectures on topics from intelligence leaking to global warming – diversions that could irk the travel-weary president who has been away from Washington for seven days already.

Trump heard from French President Emmanuel Macron about global warming on Thursday during a meeting at the U.S. ambassadorial residence in Brussels, Belgium.

Caffe klatch? The other G7 leaders crowded around Trump on a balcony overlooking the Ionian Sea

Friendly: Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni (left) welcomes British Prime Minister Theresa May (right) prior to a group photo during a G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina

Trump huddled with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, left, before Friday's opening ceremony

He was seated next to May at a NATO dinner, where the British prime minister said she planned to 'make clear' that information her country shared with the US 'must remain secure.'

In Rome on Wednesday during a brief stop before the NATO summit, Trump met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to discuss the G7 agenda and counter terrorism efforts in Africa and the Middle East. They also talked about Russia's incursion into Crimea, the White House said.

Trump, Macron, May and Gentiloni are all newcomers to the world-leaders circuit, having taken office in the past year.

'The president has already met with all of the G7 leaders one-on-one. He actually met with the last one today, from France, Macron, so he’s got a personal relationship with all the G7 leaders,' Cohen explained Thursday as he previewed the schedule to reporters on Air Force One.

'So the G7 is set up to be more of an ad-hoc session where the leaders get together and they listen and talk to each other.'

Smaller African nations have been invited to participate in a Saturday morning session about migration, food security and gender issues. The final session of the day has no assigned issue to allow for a free flow of information.

Cohn said Thursday that he expects terrorism to play a prominent role at the G7, especially after this week's suicide bombing in the UK.

'Obviously Theresa May and the president are going to have a lot to say about terrorism, terrorism financing, starting out with our trip in the Middle East,' he explained

Trump put his self-promotional Twitter PR in motion on Friday morning, saying he would engage G7 leaders on 'economic growth, terrorism, and security'

The seven G7 leaders , plus the presidents of the EU and EC, posed for a 'family photo' on stage at the ancient theatre

On trade issues, Cohn said Trump's position on 'free and open' exchanges of goods is: 'We will treat you the way you treat us – meaning if you don't have barriers to trade or you don't have tariffs, we won't have tariffs. If you have tariffs, we should have tariffs.'

And talks about the environment will ultimately run smack-dab into Trump's reputation as an uncompromising job creator.

'He wants to do the right thing for the environment. He cares about the environment. But he also cares very much about creating jobs for American workers,' Cohn said.

'He wants to hear what the Europeans have to say about that.'

On Thursday in Belgium, they didn't want to hear from him. He rebuked them publicly at a NATO meeting in Brussels anyway, lecturing them about the need for them to spend more on defense.

'This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States,' Trump said.'"If NATO countries made their full and complete contributions, then NATO would be even stronger than it is today, especially from the threat of terrorism.'

Overseer: European Council President Donald Tusk arrived for Friday's welcome ceremony for the G7 summit

The G7 comprise Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the US and Italy – and protesters from Oxfam lampooned Trump as a recalcitrant obstruction to the Paris global warming treaty on Friday

The 28 member nations, plus soon-to-join Montenegro, will renew an old vow to move toward spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024. Only five members meet the target: Britain, Estonia, debt-laden Greece, Poland and the United States, which spends more on defense than all the other allies combined.

Trump refused to say he would adhere to the NATO mutual defense pact, known as Article V, though the White House later claimed that his very presence alongside twisted World Trade Center steel – a memorial outside NATO headquarters – was evidence enough of his commitment.

'I think it's a bit silly because by being here at such a ceremony, we all understand that by being part of NATO we treat the obligations and commitments,' said press secretary Sean Spicer, who dubbed speculation about Trump's intent 'laughable.'

And while the NATO members pledged to join the fight against Islamic State militants, as Trump had urged, there was very little discussion of the threat that many of the nations feel, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, from recent Russian aggression.

As Trump spoke, the NATO leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, stood in awkward silence.

Later, as they took the traditional 'family photo' group shot, the heads of state quietly kept their distance from Trump, who minutes earlier was caught on video appearing to push the prime minister of Montenegro out of the way to get to his spot.