President Donald Trump is currently France, where he’ll attend an Armistice Day celebration to mark the 100th year anniversary of the end of the First World War, but his trip has already gotten off to a bad start. Just moments after landing, he tweeted:
President Macron of France has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia. Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018
Trump’s peevish tweet seems to be based on a misunderstanding of Macron’s comments about building up Europe’s unified military. According to the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, “Actually, what Macron said on French radio on Tuesday was that Europe needed a real army to reduce reliance on the United States for defense in the face of a resurgent Russia.”
Macron’s actual comments were perfectly consistent with Trump’s own agenda of getting NATO countries to pay more for their own defense. “We won’t protect Europeans if we don’t decide to have a real European army,” the French president remarked. “Faced with Russia, which is near our borders and has shown it could be threatening—I want to build a real security dialogue with Russia, which is a country I respect, a European country—but we must have a Europe that can defend itself on its own without relying only on the United States.”
Trump is walking into a fraught situation in Europe, one well described by foreign policy scholar Tom Wright of the Brookings Institution. In a series of tweets, Wright argued that the trip shows how America and its European allies are at cross-purposes. Trump’s main reason for going seems to be that he enjoys military parades, which the French excel in presenting. Macron, meanwhile, is using the event to promote the Paris Peace Forum, a showcase for liberal internationalism. Normally, an American president would be welcome at such an event, but Trump has been discouraged from sticking around for it.
Wright’s tweets are worth reading in full, but here are some highlights:
I asked numerous administration & European officials if Trump would go. They all said they didn't know but privately admitted that they were avoiding the topic w/ Trump. They knew it was potentially explosive. France did not push the invite. And the admin did not seek it. 5/n
— Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) November 9, 2018
The upshot is that Trump is leaving the day before it starts. This is part of a European strategy of avoidance-- minimize interaction with the president. They have concluded that things are most unstable when he is in the room so reduce those interactions. 6/n
— Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) November 9, 2018
This is also why NATO will not be holding a leaders summit next year. Minimize interaction with the American president. Trump's team are happy to play along. So the summit will be at the Foreign Minister/ Sec State level. 7/n
— Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) November 9, 2018