President Donald Trump's tweet was his second over the last five days that misleadingly accused French President Emmanuel Macron of suggesting European nations need more robust militaries to protect themselves from the U.S. | Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images
Fresh off his visit to Paris for a World War I armistice celebration, President Donald Trump on Tuesday invoked both world wars and lashed out at French President Emmanuel Macron for suggesting that Europe as a whole should be more self-sufficient and less reliant on the U.S. for its defense.
“Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia,” Trump began in a tweet. “But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two - How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!”
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"MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!" the U.S. president wrote in a follow-up post to Twitter later Tuesday morning.
Trump's Tuesday morning tweet was his second over the last five days that accused Macron of suggesting European nations need more robust militaries to protect themselves from the U.S., a mischaracterization of what the French president actually said. Macron, in an interview with Europe 1, suggested that Europe needs to better position militarily itself against an increasingly aggressive Russia.
Macron also lamented a U.S. decision to withdraw from a treaty with Russia that prohibited the manufacture of intermediate range nuclear missiles. The "main victim" of that move, Macron said, was "Europe and its security."
“I believe in the project of a sovereign Europe. We won’t protect Europe if we don’t decide to have a true European army," he said. “We have to have a Europe that can defend itself alone — and without only relying on the United States — in a more sovereign manner."
“We should protect ourselves when it comes to China, Russia and even the United States of America," the French president also said, alluding to the decision to pull out of the missile treaty with Russia.
Aides to Macron disputed that the president was insinuating that France would target the U.S. with any proposed EU army, even if other European countries have shown no interest in such a force.
Trump has repeatedly called for NATO allies to rely less on the U.S. for their defense and has railed against nations that he says do not put enough of their gross domestic product towards defense spending. Trump has regularly demanded that NATO countries increase their defense spending to a higher percentage of their GDP, forcing the issue at last summer's NATO summit by threatening to pull the U.S. out of the pact if spending targets were not met.
Macron, in his interview, agreed that Europe should become less dependent on the U.S. for its military. “We need a Europe which defends itself better alone, without just depending on the United States, in a more sovereign manner,” he said.
But just after landing in Paris on Friday, Trump took to Twitter to call Macron’s comments “very insulting,” adding a new layer of tension to the weekend’s ceremonies, but the two leaders discussed the issue during Trump’s visit.
“Never easy bringing up the fact that the U.S. must be treated fairly, which it hasn’t, on both Military and Trade,” Trump tweeted after the returned to the U.S.
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