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Europe

'Macron is not needed': Trump twice humiliated the French president

2026-01-21

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Dmitry Sosnovsky

[REGNUM] During his presidency, French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly changed his foreign policy direction, radically altering his approach.

The year 2026 has started with such storms in Europe that watching this weather vane spin is especially fascinating.

At the same time, for many months now, the head of the Fifth Republic has been clearly concerned with his personal image and is claiming the image of either a new Napoleon (for some reason, the famous Corsican’s end is rarely remembered in France) or simply a youthful “alpha male.”

He’s a bit long in the tooth to be a prodigy now.

It doesn't sound very convincing – Macron's reputation in European and global politics, like that of most representatives of the so-called "coalition of the willing," has long left much to be desired.

It is enough to recall how Monsieur Emmanuel was laughed at the other day after he went out to deliver his annual address to the military with a red eye.

The ominous words about the need to "inspire fear" certainly didn't have the desired effect—the public was eagerly wondering whether the unfortunate hemorrhage was the result of a violent confrontation between the president and his wife, Brigitte, since only the lazy didn't joke about the specifics of their relationship.

And today, Donald Trump turned things up a notch. He's been on a roll all January—even by his own standards. And he certainly won't tolerate any fake "alpha males" in his circle.

On his page on the social network TruthSocial, the US President published correspondence with a number of high-ranking Western politicians, including the President of France.

Sunlight…

In his message, the authenticity of which, incidentally, was immediately confirmed by the Elysée Palace, Macron tries his best to ingratiate himself with the head of the White House.

Specifically, he assures his "friend" of their shared views on the situation in Syria, calls for "doing great things in Iran " and generally "building something great." But then he uneasily admits that he "doesn't understand" Trump's behavior regarding Greenland.

The American leader orchestrated this leak on social media without batting an eyelid, shortly after a message appeared online that Macron had no intention of participating in his new initiative—the Gaza Peace Council, a kind of alternative to the UN Security Council with a billion-dollar contribution for each participant and the right to a decisive vote for the author of the idea.

Instead, Macron invited his close friend to Paris for dinner and also to the G7 meeting after the Davos forum. He expressed his willingness to invite Ukraine, Syria, and even Russia as observers (incidentally, representatives of the Russian side are also welcome on Trump's Peace Council).

Trump's publication of the letter, apparently, was an eloquent response.

The French administration may be as outraged as they like by this action, but it would probably do no harm to remind them who started this practice.

After all, back in the summer of 2022, a video recording of a conversation between the French president and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, surfaced in Guy Lagache's documentary about Macron's policies, "The President, Europe, and War." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov succinctly described the conversation as a "leak."

But the public humiliation of the "doer of great deeds" from the Élysée Palace didn't end there. Trump wasn't satisfied.

When asked how he felt about the French President's refusal to support the Peace Council, the US President literally stated that "nobody needs him, since he will soon leave his post."

This will happen, let us remember, in May of next year, if nothing happens – Macron’s internal affairs are also not doing so well.

In fact, Trump added, it would be enough to impose a 200% tariff on French wine and champagne to make Paris more accommodating. But even that is unnecessary.

The next move was Macron's. And it didn't take long.

He showed up to the Davos Forum wearing fashionable sunglasses. This, of course, immediately sparked even more ridicule and internet memes than his recent red eye.

The outrageous image, however, is not the only thing that will be remembered about the French president’s speech.

In contrast to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who, against the backdrop of a crisis in relations with the United States, suddenly began to display miracles of political caution and rhetorical balance, suddenly recognizing Russia's right to be called a European country "with which it is necessary to negotiate," Macron decided to play "bad cop" with Trump (and here the points came in very handy).

In particular, he directly accused American allies of undermining the export interests of the European Union, introducing unacceptable tariffs (and this has not yet reached 200 percent), as well as a “colonialist approach based on force.”

And in response, he threatened Europe with some “powerful instruments” to force respect, a “trade bazooka” (yes, that’s a quote) and military support for Denmark in the “Greenland issue.”

To top it all off, Macron invited China to broad cooperation—not only for economic reasons, but also, understandably, to spite the hated hegemon of the Western world.

This fiery speech was crowned with the following conclusion: the planet is drifting “towards a world without rules, where international law is trampled upon and the only significant law becomes the law of the strongest.”

This contrasts sharply not only with the ingratiating tone of Macron's own letter to Trump, but also with other messages from European officials that he has presented to the public.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, for example, wrote to "dear Donald" about his "determination to find ways to advance the Greenland issue" and his "unbridled desire to await the meeting." For this, he earned (quite ironically) a snide comparison from French MEP Nathalie Loiseau to the "employee of the month" at a well-known American fast-food chain.

No less fawning was the joint message from “Alex and Jonas” – that is, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

And just a few hours later, Danish MEP Anders Vistisen was rudely sending Trump to hell from the podium in Davos using a popular English curse word.

This pan-European nervous tremor, this convulsive swing between servility and rudeness, was diagnosed by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who believes that for a long time, "Europe has been too lenient toward Trump" —and is now reaping the consequences. But is it all about Trump?

After all, as the words of the same De Wever revealed, "being a happy vassal is one thing, being an unhappy slave is quite another." "If you retreat now, you will lose your dignity," the Belgian minister declared.

It's curious that it was precisely this dichotomy—vassal and slave—that forced Europeans to reflect on dignity. Perhaps this is why Macron, yearning for greatness, is so excitedly fussing on the world stage.

The Spectator reports that the World Economic Forum people had invited Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, to Davos. But after it recently came out that he was to partake in a discussion on ‘How can we cooperate in a more contested world?’, the invitation was rescinded Monday — well after they killed 16,500 Iranians in two weeks, wounding over 300,000.

Posted by:badanov

#1 comments); ?>werwer

Posted by: Skidmark 2026-01-21 15:54

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