French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday drew sharp contrasts with US President Donald Trump’s worldview, laying out a firm vision of global leadership that rejects “the illusion of nationalism” in a candid counterweight to Trump’s appeals to put “America first.”
In the spotlight of a speech to the US Congress, Macron was courteous but firm, deferential but resolute as he traced the lines of profound division between himself and Trump on key world issues — climate change, trade and the Iran nuclear deal.
A day after the French leader had put on a show of warmth and brotherly affection for Trump at the White House, his blunt speech prizing engagement over isolationism reinforced the French leader’s emerging role as a top defender of the liberal world order.
“We can choose isolationism, withdrawal and nationalism. This is an option. It can be tempting to us as a temporary remedy to our fears, but closing the door to the world will not stop the evolution of the world. It will not douse, but inflame the fears of our citizens,” Macron said.
Issuing a bleak warning, he urged against letting “the rampaging work of extreme nationalism shake a world full of hopes for greater prosperity.”
As Trump weighs pulling out of the 2015 Iran accord, Macron made it clear that France would not follow his lead.
“We signed it at the initiative of the United States. We signed it, both the United States and France,” Macron said. “That is why we cannot say we should get rid of it like that.”
Macron saved some of his most pointed comments during the speech on Trump administration policy for climate change, implicitly lamenting the US president’s moves to withdraw from the global emissions pact reached in Paris.
Macron said humans are “killing our planet” and added: “Let us face it: There is no planet B.”
“On this issue, it may happen we have disagreements between the United States and France. It may happen, like in all families, but that’s for me a short-term disagreement,” Macron said.
It was an allusion not to an impending Trump about-face, but to the prospect of the US choosing a different path under a successor, whoever that might prove to be.
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