French President Emmanuel Macron warned Europe against projecting weakness as he seeks to build goodwill with the United States.
During a New Year’s speech at Paris’s Elysee Palace on Monday, Macron said if France decides “to be weak and defeatist, there is little chance we will be respected by the United States under President Trump.”
Instead, the French leader urged Europe to project power by doing its own work on matters of defense and trade, saying the continent has room “to go much faster and much stronger” in developing sovereignty over its own affairs and decreasing dependence on the U.S.
“The question is whether Europeans want to produce what they need for their own security over the next 20 years or not. It’s a safe bet that in 15 to 20 years’ time, the American priority will be its own defense, and much more so around and in the China Sea than in Europe. If we depend on the American defense industrial and technological base, then we’ll be faced with cruel dilemmas and shameful strategic dependencies,” Macron said.
Macron’s comments come after President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly criticized NATO allies, the military alliance that the U.S., France, and other European countries are a part of, for not contributing more of their own funds toward defending their countries.
After he assumes office later this month, Trump is expected to push NATO allies to increase their contributions to defense spending, as many countries continue to fall short of their pledges.
“Around the world, responsible nations must defend against threats to sovereignty not just from global governance, but also from other, new forms of coercion and domination,” Trump said during his first term at a 2018 foreign policy address to the United Nations. “Moving forward, we are only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends. And we expect other countries to pay their fair share for the cost of their defense.”
The year before his speech, the U.S. contributed more funds to NATO than Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and Canada combined.
As Macron outlined his foreign policy priorities for 2025 during the address to French ambassadors, he also downplayed fears that a second Trump term would hurt Europe.
“It was exactly the same questions eight years ago. We were being told the worst: President Trump elected, Brexit was here, Europe was a goner,” he said. “We have moved our Europe forward over the last seven years. Resolutely. And it is now capable of meeting the challenges it faces.”
“We’ve been able to work with Trump. We know what the disagreements are, such as on climate change,” Macron continued. “Donald Trump knows that he has a solid ally in France, an ally he does not underestimate, one who believes in Europe and carries a lucid ambition for the transatlantic relationship,” the French leader added.
Last month, Trump favored France as the site of his first international trip as president-elect. While he enjoyed a somewhat rocky relationship with Macron during his first term, particularly in 2018, the two men appeared to be all smiles at the grand reopening of France’s iconic Notre Dame cathedral.
“Welcome back again. We are very happy to have you here,” Macron said as the two leaders shook hands.
While Macron bids to earn Trump’s favor, he also gave a veiled warning Monday to one of the president-elect’s top allies, Elon Musk.
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“Ten years ago, who could have imagined it if we had been told that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany,” Macron said in an apparent reference to Musk, who also attended Notre Dame’s reopening and recently attracted Europe’s ire for backing Germany’s Alternative fur Deutschland party and calling for political reforms in the United Kingdom.
Both Musk and Trump have been invited by Macron to come back to France in February for a major summit on artificial intelligence.