Like many nations around the world, France initially tried business as usual after Donald Trump became president of the United States. French President, Emmanuel Macron invited Trump to Paris in July 2017, where the American President was guest of honor at the Bastille Day parade, and the two first couples had dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower. French public opinion widely condemned Macron for the invitation. But it was the first of three encounters over 18 months, and the start of what many observers called a bromance with lots of physical touching between the two Presidents. Then, the Trumps invited the Macrons to Washington in April 2018, hosting them for their first state dinner of the presidency. The Macrons brought a gift, an oak tree from a World War I battleground in France where 2000 American soldiers had died. The two first couples planted the sapling on the South Lawn of the White House, a symbol of Franco-American solidarity. On a tour of Mount Vernon, the real estate tycoon wondered aloud to the Macron why George Washington didn't have the plantation estate named after him, requiring a reminder that the capital of the United States was in fact named after him. Afterward, the so-called bromance might have cooled a bit with Macron's speech to the joint session of Congress that did not mince words. Macron lambasted Trump's anti-immigration proposals, his threat to break the Iran nuclear deal that the US had initiated, his launching of commercial wars, and his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. On this last topic, Macron warned American political leaders, "There is no planet B." Directly countering more of Trump's positions, Macron argued that science and women's rights are the way forward, and he denounced job protectionism and fanaticism. Half a year later, Donald and Melanin Trump were back in France for the centennial of Armistice day. This time he was just one of 60 World leaders invited to France in November 2018. The Trump baby balloon was the highlight of a Paris street protest against Trump's return to France. Macron's official speech at this celebration of peace and international cooperation featured a blunt critique of Donald Trump's America First mentality. Macron proclaimed, "Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism." Shortly thereafter, Trump tweeted a critique of Macron, including his mocking quip, "Make France great again." Surely, this was the end of the bromance. So hello again to our students of America through French eyes. It's 2020 now and so much has changed in the way that French people see America and Americans. The cause of this seismic shift is of course the election of Donald Trump as US President in the fall of 2016. In French eyes, this American president poses a grave threat to public safety on a global level, to the international economic system, and to the billions of humans whose lives depend on such safety and stability. On the night of Trump's election, the French ambassador to the United States proclaimed in a tweet, "A world crumbles before our eyes, vertigo." Because of long-term American dominance in world affairs, diplomatic, political, economic, cultural, it is hard for other nations to ignore the United States. Even when this so called leader of the free world and bedrock of democracy that has been idealized for decades, seems to have gone off the deep end by trouncing its own democratic norms. The point I'd like to make in this chapter is that since the Trump presidency began in 2017, France no longer looks to the United States for leadership, for cooperation, not even for a counterexample, and certainly not as a role model. I can no longer speak of America through French eyes in the same ways I have in the previous chapters of this module because French People, including its leaders, have simply turned their gaze away from America. Let's not forget some key events in France when this phenomenon began. A French presidential election took place in May 2017, just six months after the American election, and less than a year after Brexit, when the British voted to leave the European Union. These two votes in the Anglo-Saxon world signified to France, as well as to most of the world, a shift toward populism where the will of the people could make for some very bad decisions. Remember, it was Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville himself who warned about the potential tyranny of the majority as he observed the nascent democracy in America. The French presidential election of 2017 faced its own thread of populism when an extreme right candidate, Marine Le Pen, of the party long known as the National Front, made it to the second round of elections. Just as in the US, fake news and Russian interference were, for the first time, key factors that threatened the integrity of the French elections. French voters however turned their backs on easy populous solutions to complex issues and elected Emmanuel Macron, a candidate from the center right of the political spectrum. Nonetheless, since his presidency began, he has been plagued by a number of internal and external populist threats. Inside France, first, Macron must continue to contend with the 20 percent of registered voters who pledge allegiance to the National Front Party. Second, we have seen the emergence of the gilets jaunes or yellow vest movement and amorphous anti-establishment populist movement, which since the fall of 2018 has wreaked havoc across France for dozens of weekends of protest. The threat of populism is also outside french borders, but just in its backyard nationalist and far-right governments have won elections in Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Italy, all members of the European Union. Significant right wing populist movements have been narrowly kept out of political seats in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and historically liberal Scandinavia. Under these threats and with the White House inhabited by a President who, by his statements and actions, has come to be widely perceived as unpredictable, racist, and not least sexist, France has had little choice but to direct its gaze in three directions that don't include America. First, to Europe, and to its key partner, Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are the two standing representatives of social democracy in the European Union today, holding the ground of democratic principles and collaborative governance. Donald Trump's overt hostility to America's allies took French and Europeans aback. His contempt for the institution of the European Union was understood to be a direct threat to its very solvency. The extent of Trump's disregard for the international system and for the historical ties that bind the US to Europe, not to mention his diplomatic improprieties and outrageous insults is too vast to describe here. But let me just highlight a few examples; his refusal to shake Angela Merkel's hand at the White House in March 2017, his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord in June 2017, his renunciation of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, and concomitant imposition of sanctions on all coast signatories, who didn't abide by his rules, and finally his pull out via Twitter from the G7 in Quebec in June 2018. In shock, French politicians re-baptized that summit the G6 plus one to account for the self-imposed American isolation. In short course, this 44th G7 summit has come to signify for several policy experts the end of the American era. In response to this new world order, France looks to strengthen the bonds of the European Union. Second, in averting its gaze away from the US, France has eyes for China. In March 2019, Macron, Merkel, and the President of the European Commission invited Xi Jinping to Europe to forge a common strategic plan to counter and control Chinese inroads in European trade via its Belt and Road Initiative. During the same visit, Airbus, the European consortium announced the sale of 300 airplanes to China, upping the ante against its American competitor Boeing. Finally, in the vacuum created by an absence of American leadership, France is very focused on Africa. With 10 visits in less than two years in power, Macron has renewed French attention to maintaining its political and economic role in Africa. Critics might call it neocolonialism. Also in countries beyond the usual Francophone nations, that is, former French and Belgian colonies. French activity in Africa mirrors the intentions of two other countries featured in our course, China and secondarily Russia, who are implanting themselves on a massive scale in multiple African countries. In fact, one country that doesn't seem to have this 21st century scramble for Africa sharply on its strategic radar is the United States whose leaders insult, calling African nations "asshole countries" demonstrates a blind obliviousness to African potential, to say nothing of gross racism. So with Germany anchored by its side, the French are looking away from the United States as if averting their eyes from an embarrassing spectacle. They are instead looking in other directions, toward Europe, toward China, toward Africa, and ultimately toward a post-Trump future. For the French, the United States led by Donald Trump calls into question the very existence of a set of shared values between Europe and the United States. The rift is so wide as to make it impossible to talk in the same way as before of an America through French eyes. Only time will tell whether this new chasm will be bridged.
