President Donald Trump is hitting back a second time against French President Emmanuel Macron after calls for an E.U. “army.” This time he didn’t stop at one tweet.
Early Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted, “Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two – How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!”
Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two – How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
“On Trade, France makes excellent wine, but so does the U.S. The problem is that France makes it very hard for the U.S. to sell its wines into France, and charges big Tariffs, whereas the U.S. makes it easy for French wines, and charges very small Tariffs. Not fair, must change!” he continued
On Trade, France makes excellent wine, but so does the U.S. The problem is that France makes it very hard for the U.S. to sell its wines into France, and charges big Tariffs, whereas the U.S. makes it easy for French wines, and charges very small Tariffs. Not fair, must change!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
He then took his ire to Macron’s approval rating, saying, “The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France, 26%, and an unemployment rate of almost 10%. He was just trying to get onto another subject. By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France, very proud people-and rightfully so!……..”
The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France, 26%, and an unemployment rate of almost 10%. He was just trying to get onto another subject. By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France, very proud people-and rightfully so!……..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
Trump ended his Twitter storm with “MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!”
……MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
Last week, Macron strengthened his calls for a European army – something he’s been calling for since he was elected last year – to defend the E.U. from the U.S., China and Russia.
“We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army,” Macron said during an interview on French radio, The Wall Street Journal reported last Tuesday.
“We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” he said.
On Friday, Trump addressed Macron’s comments for the first time, tweeting, “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!”
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
Despite last week’s remarks, the two leaders met amicably on Saturday for meetings and lunch ahead of the 100th anniversary of the World War I armistice in Paris.
However, Macron used his speech at the event to take a jab at Trump’s nationalism remarks. While President Trump did not respond publicly at the time, Macron doubled down on his criticisms of Trump again later in the day, this time over Trump’s Twitter habit.
“I always prefer having direct discussion or answering questions (than) making my diplomacy through tweets. But I think we had a very clear discussion. He is in favor of a better burden-sharing within NATO. I agree with that. And I think that in order to have a better burden-sharing, all of us do need more Europe,” Macron told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
In a joint press conference with Macron, Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. will continue to support Europe, but its defense spending must increase to a fairer level – a notion that Macron agreed with.
“We want a strong Europe, it’s very important to us, and whichever way we can do it the best and more efficient would be something we both want,” said Trump, according to CNBC.
“We want to help Europe but it has to be fair. Right now the burden sharing has been largely on the United States,” he added.
