We were told that the leaders of other nations would be appalled by Trump as president and would refuse to deal with him. Of course, we were told a lot of things. It doesn’t sound like Macron got the memo.
France’s Macron: I’m really enjoying my special relationship with Donald Trump
It almost makes me pine for the days of Jacques Chirac, sort of like you think back on your bout with Herpes and wonder where the time has gone.
Who would have thought the presidency of Donald Trump would coincide with a significant warming in our relationship with France?
Yet here we are. Emmanuel Macron sees a lot of himself in Trump, and probably vice versa, and after resolving at the outset not to let the supposed strongman intimidate him,
Macron and Trump seem to have formed quite the bond:
Before their first meeting last year at a NATO summit, Macon said he noticed how Trump yanked other world leaders toward him during a handshake and he wasn’t going to be caught off guard.
“It’s not innocent,” Macron said of his “direct, lucid” body language toward Trump.
“Seeing (Japanese) Prime Minister Abe and some of the different victims, I resisted,” Macron told “Fox News Sunday.”
Macron held Trump’s hand for some six secondsduring their first meeting in Belgium in May in a white-knuckled standoff. When Trump traveled to Paris for Bastille Day parade in July, the hand shaking lasted a memorable 29 seconds.
But the stiff arm paid off.
What has resulted in the year since is a very “special relationship,” Macron said.
Now, he has the distinct honor this week of being feted as Trump’s first state visit guest.
The two will have a private dinner Monday at Mount Vernon, enjoy a state dinner on Tuesday and Macron will make a rare joint address to Congress on Wednesday.
“We have a very special relationship because both of us are probably the maverick of the systems on both sides,” Macron said. “I think President Trump’s election was unexpected in your country and probably my election was unexpected in my country. And we are not part of the classical political system.”
I actually find it amusing when people are surprised by people getting along who have every reason to get along. The bond between George W. Bush and Tony Blair was legendary, yet it stunned the American media because they see everything in partisan terms, and the Labor Party’s Blair was supposedly a poor match for the Republican Bush. It was irrelevant. The two men and their countries needed each other, and they developed an excellent working relationship. That’s the thing about world leaders: While everyone else in the political world can yap their mouths, these men have to govern, and you can’t do that very effectively if you can’t work with anyone but those who are just like you.
So why shouldn’t Trump and Macron get along? Both are unconventional politicians. Both lead countries who have had challenges pertaining to terrorism, immigration, debt, economic growth, cultural upheaval . . . there’s more in common than there will ever be fodder for conflict.
A problem, though, is France’s investment in the Iran nuclear deal. Macron thinks it’s a good deal for whatever reason, and he’s invested in it not unlike Chirac was invested in his pal Saddam Hussein. I think what Macron actually wants is for Trump not to simply blow up the deal and leave U.S. allies who joined in negotiating it high and dry. I think Trump recognizes that would be the best way to discard the deal, which is the reason he hasn’t done it already. He’s probably working with Macron and other allies to try to identify a way out of it that does the least harm to all the countries that foolishly signed it.
We were told that the leaders of other nations would be appalled by Trump as president and would refuse to deal with him. Of course, we were told a lot of things. It doesn’t sound like Macron got the memo.
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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
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