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Home • News

French President Emmanuel Macron Isn't Here For Trump's Twitter Diplomacy

Other things French President Emmanuel Macron isn't here for include Donald Trump's proud claims of being a nationalist.
French President Emmanuel Macron Isn't Here For Trump's Twitter Diplomacy
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at the opening session of the Paris Peace Forum, an event that is a part of the commemoration ceremonies to mark the centenary of the 1918 Armistice, at the Villette Conference Hall in Paris The Paris Peace Forum was created to bring together all actors of global governance to strengthen multilateralism and international cooperation. On Sunday, November 11, 2018, in Paris, France. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
By Breanna Edwards · Updated October 23, 2020
Although French President Emmanuel Macron is among our allies, he is still not pulling punches when it comes to how he feels about President Donald Trump and the way he attempts to lead the country. One thing Macron is not a fan of? Trump’s habit of tweeting any and everything. “I always prefer having direct discussion or answering questions than making my diplomacy through tweets,” Macron said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. Macron’s comments came just hours after Trump, who had just arrived Paris, took to Twitter to lash out at Macron for suggesting that more European military cooperation would benefit the region as a means of protecting itself without assistance, from China, Russia and even the United States, according to Agence France Presse.

President Macron of France has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia. Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018
Nonetheless, Macron said his relationship with his American counterpart were fine, despite the tense tweet, noting that the two had quite a bit in common. Macron acknowledged, for example that both of them are “outsiders of the classical politicians.” “Probably because we are very much aligned in the fight against terrorism and we work very closely together following this line,” he added. “We know where we disagree and we are very straightforward in that — on climate, on trade, on multilateralism — but we work very well together because we have very regular and direct discussions.” Still, there are some things where the men are on opposing ends. Donald Trump recently acknowledged that he was a nationalist, whereas Macron sees himself as a patriot. “I would say I’m a patriot. I do believe in the fact that our people are very important and having French people is different from German people. I’m not a believer in the sort of globalism without any differentiation. It’s very inconsistent, and… it makes our people very nervous,” he said. “But I’m not a nationalist.” “I’m a strong believer in cooperation between the different peoples, and I’m a strong believer of the fact that this cooperation is good for everybody, where the nationalists are sometimes much more based on a unilateral approach and the law of the strongest, which is not my case,” he added. “That’s probably our difference.”
TOPICS:  American-French relationships Donald Trump Emmanuel Macron