Macron-Trump tango displays differences

French President Emmanuel Macron is the first European leader to meet American President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. The media is busy interpreting the physical vibes between the two leaders, who were reviving their friendship forged in the first terms of office of the two.

There seems to be a continuation of the handshakes, hugs, laugher and the compliments they exchanged with each other. British journalist Piers Morgan, a friend of Trump, seems to have summed it up well: “No world leader handles Trump as well as Macron. Friendly but firm, respectful but not afraid to stand up to him when he thinks he’s wrong, and Trump respects him for it.”

And Macron did correct Trump openly at the press conference when Trump said that all the European aid to Ukraine was in the form of loans. Macron said, “No, in fact, to be frank, we paid 60 per cent of the total effort and it was – like the US – loans, guarantees, grants.” Trump did not accept that he was wrong. He just said, “If you believe that, it’s ok with me.”

But the differences between France and the US under Trump went beyond the tidbits. Macron made clear that Europe wanted a truce but the peace agreement needs to be “assessed, checked and verified.” And Macron reiterated the fact that Russia was the aggressor, something that Trump wanted to gloss over. The age difference between Macron, 47, and Trump 78, is obvious. And Macron is being sensitive to the age factor without being either deferential or diffident.

France is well aware that US is the bigger ally in more ways than one. While acknowledging the fact, France has always asserted its independent view of the world. This has been so from the days of Charles De Gaulle immediately after the Second World War.

The United Kingdom was only too willing to play second fiddle to the US, and Germany had no choice after the Second World War but to toe the American line. It was so in the case of Japan too, which like Germany was the vanquished country of the Second World War. Can France counter the cavalier attitude towards the Ukraine-Russia war and NATO?

It cannot on the face of it. But France feels bound to defend the unity of Europe. Germany too finds it necessary to stand up for Europe. The German conservative leader Friedrich Merz had made that clear. European leaders realise that in Russia they face more than the proverbial Big Brother. Putin is seen as posing a threat to the democratic values of Europe. And even right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been compelled to take a stand against Russia and Putin over Ukraine.

So Trump will face resistance in Europe. This will not prevent him from connecting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because Trump is not worried about the democratic credentials of Putin. Trump’s attitude towards dictators is neutral as was revealed when he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June, 2018.

Now, Trump has said that he would travel to Moscow once the peace deal with Russia is made. European leaders are most likely to consider the Trump interregnum as an aberration and that the US would sooner than later get back to its position as the leader of the democratic Western bloc.

Trump’s Democrat predecessor Joe Biden might have overstated the democracy vs. authoritarian thesis in the Ukraine context, but he was playing the traditional American card. It would be difficult even for Trump with his own ideas of politics and diplomacy to alter the American position beyond a point.