December 10, 2018

Macron facing a crisis that he created by baiting Trump

By Thomas Lifson


An arrogant politician expressing contempt for Donald Trump and his supporters experienced a surprising and humiliating defeat in late 2016 in our presidential election. A corresponding scenario seems to be playing itself out again in Paris.

A year and a half ago, in the wake of President Trump leaving the Paris Climate accord, France’s President Emmanuel Macron asked for a fight on climate change, in an address delivered in English, making it clear that his target was Donald Trump and the American electorate. As Andrew Bolt, writing for the Herald-Sun in Australia noted, he asked for a fight and “He got one” – but against his own citizens rebelling against taxation intended to drive them from their cars. His words, “France will not give up the fight,” have come back to haunt him.
CBS provides a partial transcript, making it clear that Macron was sticking his nose into American politics, appealing to anti-Trump people to come to France to continue the struggle:
French President Emmanuel Macron blasted President Trump Thursday for pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement and offered a "second homeland" to those who are disappointed by the decision.
"Tonight, I wish to tell the United States: France believes in you. The world believes in you. I know that you are a great nation. I know your history, our common history," Macron said in a statement, delivered in English, posted on Twitter.
"To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland," Macron said. "I call on them, come and work here with us to work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment. I can assure you France will not give up the fight."
Here is a video of his English language address (regrettably voiced over by a translator speaking French, but you can still hear the English. hat tip: Andrew Bolt):




Macron subsequently insulted President Trump in front of world leaders commemorating the hundred years’ anniversary of the end of World War I by denouncing “nationalism” and making it clear he meant Trump’s avowal of being a nationalist.

As anyone paying attention to Trump for the last 3 years knows, his policy is to hit back twice as hard when attacked. And hit back he did over the weekend, as Macron’s citizenry rose in revolt in the streets of Paris.

The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment. Chanting “We Want Trump!” Love France.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2018




Very sad day & night in Paris. Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2018


Like a bully shocked when his target fights back, Macron has had his foreign minister express outrage that Trump would “interfere in French domestic affairs”
“We do not take domestic American politics into account and we want that to be reciprocated,” he told LCI, a French television channel. “I say this to Donald Trump and the French president says it too: leave our nation be.”
And an ally insulted Trump:
Joachim Son-Forget, a member of the French National Assembly, also responded to Trump’s comments, tweeting that the president was suffering from “cerebral incontinence.”
In the process of alienating four-fifths of the French public, Emmanuel Macron has combined arrogance and disregard for the lives of ordinary people with the disdain globalists in all the advanced economies express for Trump. Tonight, he will address the people of France, speaking publicly for the first time in a week. He’s been meeting with union and business leaders, as well as politicians. Most likely, he will have to back away from some of his warmist taxes.
Don Surber maintains a Trumpenfreude list of “people who made the mistake of starting a feud with President Donald John Trump. Each wound up worse for the ordeal.” Macron already occupies number 54 on the list, but his entry is on the verge of expanding the bad consequences he is experiencing.
Hat tip: John McMahon

Image credit: YouTube screen grab