France’s president Emmanuel Macron said Europe should not reflect on if President-elect Trump’s victory is “good,” but instead consider how it will impact the continent’s priorities.
“I think that our role here, in the European Union, is not to comment on Donald Trump’s election to see if it’s good or not. He was elected by the American people, and he will defend the interests of the Americans. This is legitimate and a good thing,” Macron said in a Thursday video post on X.
“The question is whether we are ready to defend the interests of Europeans,” he added. “This is the only question he asked us.”
Macron’s comments were similar to statements he made in 2018 during Trump’s first term as president. At the time, he said it was his job to “deal” with the president and not judge him.
Two months later, he criticized the leader for his international tariffs at the G7 summits, claiming Trump didn’t care about being “isolated.”
Eight years later, the Republican is promising to raise tariffs again in addition to heavily taxing imports.
“The question he asked us is, do we want to read history written by others, the wars launched by Vladimir Putin, the American elections, the choices made by the Chinese in terms of technology or trade, or do we want to write history,” Macron asked in the Thursday post. “I think we have the strength to write it.”
“Our economies are strong, our countries have sophisticated defense systems, and we represent something,” he added.
He concluded by urging the European Union to meet for a discussion on their collective interests.
“For me, this is the moment when we decide to act, to defend our national and European interests at the same time, to believe in our sovereignty and strategic autonomy, and to say that we do not just want to be customers, to be a market that is taken, to delegate to others our economy, our technological choices, our security, but we want to fully grasp the issue of peace on our soil, our prosperity and our democratic model,” said Macron.
