President Donald Trump finally reacted on Tuesday to French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech condemning nationalism, noting his low approval ratings.
“The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France, 26 percent, and an unemployment rate of almost 10 percent,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Despite Trump’s embrace of the word “nationalist” to describe his political thought, Macron warned the world that “patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism” during his speech marking the 100th year anniversary of the end of World War I.
Trump suggested that Macron was trying to distract from his unpopularity.
“He was just trying to get onto another subject,” Trump wrote. “By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France, very proud people-and rightfully so! MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!”
The president also criticized a number of issues facing France and the United States, including wine tariffs and military spending.
The president noted that both countries made excellent wine, but said that France had higher tariffs than the United States.
“The problem is that France makes it very hard for the U.S. to sell its wines into France, and charges big Tariffs, whereas the U.S. makes it easy for French wines, and charges very small Tariffs,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Not fair, must change!”
He also ridiculed Macron for suggesting that Europe would have to build an army to protect itself from China, Russia, and the United States.
“How did that work out for France?” Trump wrote referring to World War I and World War II. “They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!”