Macron critiques Trump’s policies in speech to Congress
WASHINGTON — One day after President Emmanuel Macron of France and President Donald Trump showered each other with praise, the French president spoke more critically of his host’s foreign policy, trade and environmental decisions in a speech to Congress that amounted to an implicit rebuke of Trump’s “America First” approach.
Macron, who traveled to Washington this week hoping to persuade the U.S. president not to walk away from the Iran nuclear deal, reiterated his argument for preserving the deal even as he said he and Trump had decided to pursue “a more comprehensive deal” to restrain Tehran.
The French president used his speech in the House chamber to urge Trump not to shrink from the leadership role the U.S. had played in forging the pact that Trump on Tuesday called “insane” and “ridiculous” — in the first place.
“We signed it,” Macron said of the nuclear deal with Iran, raising a finger for emphasis, “at the initiative of the United States. We signed it — both the United States and France. That is why we cannot say we should get rid of it like that.”
Macron acknowledged that the deal had not addressed crucial concerns, including future nuclear activities in Iran, the use of ballistic missiles and the country’s destabilizing activities in the region.
“But we should not abandon it without having something substantial, and more substantial, instead,” he added. “What we decided, together with your president, is that we can work on a more comprehensive deal addressing all these concerns.”
He was greeted warmly with a three-minute standing ovation, and he drew several more ovations throughout his speech as he outlined his vision of global affairs and the alliance between the United States and France, in nearly flawless English.
He opened with a humorous nod to the much-discussed embraces he and Trump shared at the White House on Tuesday, comparing their interactions to those between the French philosopher Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin when they met in Paris in 1778.
“They embraced each other by hugging one another in their arms, and kissing each other’s cheeks,” Macron said, pausing for effect. “It can remind you of something.”
He spoke about the “unbreakable bonds” between the United States and France and their common values of tolerance, liberty and human rights.
But in substance, Macron’s address illustrated the degree to which the warm personal rapport between the two presidents contrasts with the stark divides between them on vital questions of policy.
Macron attacked nationalism and argued that it was up to the U.S. to preserve the international order it had helped to create.
“We have to shape our common answers to the global threats that we are facing,” Macron said, calling for a new, “strong multilateralism.”
“The United States is the one who invented this multilateralism,” he went on. “You are the one now who has to help to preserve and reinvent it.”
Macron implicitly denounced Trump’s decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum, saying that the solution to the challenges of global trade was not “massive deregulation and extreme nationalism.”
“Commercial war is not the proper answer,” Macron said. “At the end of the day, it will destroy jobs, increase prices, and the middle class will have to pay for it.”
Problems should be solved, he said, by negotiating at the World Trade Organization, an institution that Trump recently called “a disaster” that enforces global trade rules.
“We wrote these rules,” Macron said. “We should follow them.”
He also railed against inaction in the face of global climate change, using what has come to be his catchphrase for why the Paris climate accord — from which Trump has withdrawn — must be preserved.
“Let us face it: There is no Planet B,” Macron said. “I am sure one day the United States will come back and join the Paris agreement.”