French President Emmanuel Macron presented himself as the globalist “anti-Trump” in his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, speaking in direct opposition to the U.S. president’s pro-sovereignty theme.
Point by point, the French president advanced positions contrary to those of Mr. Trump, countering Trump’s “America first” nationalism with the slogan “independence today lies in interdependence.” According to members of his entourage, Mr. Macron modified his address at the last moment to respond directly to Mr. Trump’s words.
During the course of his speech, Trump mentioned sovereignty 21 times, while Macron employed the word only twice, peppering his address instead with talking points like multilateralism, climate change, and immigration.
“Our success depends on a coalition of strong and independent nations that embrace their sovereignty to promote security, prosperity, and peace for themselves and for the world,” Trump said in his address.
“We are irremediably linked to one another in a community of destinies for today and tomorrow,” Macron countered. “The world balance has profoundly changed in recent years and the world has become once again multipolar, which means we must relearn the complexity of dialogue, as well as its fruitfulness.”
For both Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump, the 72nd General Assembly of the UN in New York represented their first opportunity to address the international body as leaders of their respective countries. Taking advantage of the absence of German chancellor Angela Merkel, Macron staked his claim as the de facto leader of the liberal, globalist world. READ MORE
