On Tuesday morning U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted up a storm, this time with his vitriol aimed at French President Emmanuel Macron and the politics in the European nation. Among his messages, he criticized France’s World War II record, Macron’s approval rating, the unemployment rate in the country, and even took a stab at the wine industry, accusing France of “unfair trade practices” when it comes to the product.
According to Business Insider , the French government has hit back with a much more subtle rebuke of the U.S. president.
Aside from taking the president two days to come up with a response to what he clearly internalized as personal insults, Trump also managed to fire off his tweets on November 13, the three-year anniversary of the Paris attacks that claimed the lives of 130 people.
Benjamin Griveaux, a spokesman for the French government, offered sharp criticism of the U.S. president on Wednesday.
“Yesterday was November 13, we were marking the murder of 130 of our people. So I’ll reply in English: ‘Common decency’ would have been appropriate.”
Macron also offered a more subtle response to Trump’s tweet storm, saying that he is likely just trying to drum up support after the midterm losses the Republican party is facing.
“I think he’s playing politics, and I let him play American politics,” Macron said.
Emmanuel Macron’s spokesman accused Donald Trump of lacking “common decency” after the US President blasted his French counterpart in a series of tweets following his visit to Paris https://t.co/RRvp2cMK3O pic.twitter.com/9QVuE9ynVg
— CNN International (@cnni) November 15, 2018
Macron further clarified comments he made last week about Europe creating its own army outside of NATO. These comments seemed to particularly incense Trump for some reason, but the French president explained by pointing out that “being an ally of the U.S. doesn’t mean being a vassal state.”
Trump hit back by saying Europe should first “pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly,” and called the idea of a European army “very insulting.”
The U.S. president failed to appear at a cemetery in Paris where world leaders were honoring the fallen heroes of World War I on the 100th anniversary of the armistice. At the time, he blamed the weather for not attending. He later excused himself on Twitter by saying there was “zero visibility” for his helicopter, and that Secret Service had “refused to drive him there.” The White House explained that they didn’t want the presidential motorcade to “disrupt traffic.”
At a later event attended by Trump, Macron talked about how nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. Trump, allegedly a proud nationalist, took this as another personal insult.
