Austin American-Statesman

Macron attacks Trump moves in Congress visit

- Julie Hirschfeld Davis

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 United States 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 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 United States 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.”

 ?? OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS ?? French President Emmanuel Macron, addressing a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, outlined his vision of global affairs and the alliance between the United States and France.
OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS French President Emmanuel Macron, addressing a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, outlined his vision of global affairs and the alliance between the United States and France.

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