Macron’s visit to the United States
What lies behind the Bromance
* Record Scratch *
* Freeze Frame *
“Yep, that’s me, you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation..”
Before getting to Emmanuel standing ovation in Congress, let’s rewind a bit and start from the top.
This week French president Emmanuel Macron visited his American counterpart Donald Trump. Following Trump’s visit to Paris on the 14th of July of last year, the two had immediately hit it off, prompting the US President to decide to have its own military parade shaped around the French one on Bastille day.
This time around, it’s the French visiting the American and surprisingly it’s one of the most globalist of the European leaders to be Trump’s favorite. To Theresa May’s chagrin, the special relationship that Macron cultivated with The Donald since it’s election has been bearing its fruits. The two leaders continued their “bromance” even amidst some awkward moments and Tuesday ended all in all on a positive note.
The day after though, Macron appeared in Congress to deliver a speech that resembled a State of the Union address and an honor reserved for a few world leader starting with General Charles De Gaulle, on the same day in 1950 (a parallel that wasn’t lost on the public). In a move that probably wasn’t expected by Trump, Macron hammered down a few concepts that are in sharp contrast with the US current policy direction. He warned against trade wars, he argued for keeping the current Iran deal (but specified Teheran will NEVER get the bomb regardless) and finally he stressed the importance of keeping up with the climate goals we set because “there is no planet B”. All in all every news outlet called this an “attack on trumpism” but, to be fair, he also stressed out the close relationship the two countries have and how he believes the US will eventually re-join the Paris agreement, comparing the current refusal as a simple family squabble. Nevertheless, why didn’t Trump say anything about this performance (but found time to exchange tweets with Kanye West)? One hypothesis is that the US president likes to talk tough online, but when he meets somebody assertive in person then he becomes more diplomatic (he stopped bad mouthing Xi Jinping once they met). Another one might be because he doesn’t want to sour the mood before meeting with Angela Merkel today (Friday the 27th).
On this note, the much less advertised visit from the German Chancellor has the same objective as Macron: to normalize the relationship between the United States and Europe. After a year in office, both parties realize that they still heavily need and depend on each other and Trump, after going on the offensive with Beijing and the recent intervention in Syria, needs to keep some of the doors open. On the other hand, Berlin would be heavily penalized by the US tariffs and Paris is trying to re-shape it’s role in Africa and the Middle-East, a task that would require staying on the US good side.
Nevertheless, it will interesting to see who will get the most out of this exchanges, the Macronian bromance or the cold relationship that Merkel and Trump share. Both are throwing Europe’s weight behind their demands, but these demands are hardly “European”. They should remember that next time they think the much-needed reforms to the Eurozone are “too expensive” or that fifty-years-old agricultural policies are not negotiable.