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| The clever French President Emmanuel Macron |
It appears that French President Emmanuel Macron has learned how to play the Donald Trump game, make an outlandish nationalistic-type statement (actually regional in this case) out of the blue to set the focus.
As he arrived in Paris, President Trump criticized Macron after the French president had suggested that Europe needed an army to protect itself from the US.
Trump said it was “very insulting.”
“We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Macron said on Tuesday just days ahead of Trump's visit,
Trump responded with a tweet:
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
According to the Financial Times, Macron justified his comments by arguing that the US was threatening to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an arms control agreement from 1987 that helped to end the cold war, which he said would threaten European security.
An excellent ploy by Macron! Dismantling the arms control agreement is absurd and, indeed, would be a threat to European security.
Any non-violent friction between the US government and other traditional "allies" (vassals) is one silver lining of Trump's presidency. Is it too much to ask that, before 2020, much of Europe, South Korea, Japan, and maybe Saudi, all seek refuge elsewhere, leading to a reduction in the US government's global power?
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