Emmanuel Macron called an emergency G7 meeting in Paris to discuss the Greenland situation. He wanted world leaders to coordinate a response to Trump’s territorial ambitions. A united front against American overreach.
Trump’s response? He’s not going.
“Emmanuel is not going to be there very long,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “There’s no longevity there. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a nice guy. I like Macron, but he’s not going to be there very much longer.”
Why waste time flying to Paris to negotiate with a lame duck? Trump would rather talk to people “directly involved” with the issues. Macron doesn’t qualify.
Fix Your Own House
Trump acknowledged he has good personal relationships with both Starmer and Macron—”despite them both being liberals”—but had some advice: “They’ve got to straighten out their countries first.”
Both London and Paris have “a lot of problems,” Trump said, centering on “immigration and energy.”
On Britain, Trump pointed to the North Sea. The UK is sitting on massive oil and gas reserves and refuses to exploit them. Instead, they’re covering their “world-famous countryside” with wind turbines. They could be making a “fortune.” Instead, they’re importing energy and lecturing America about climate change.
On immigration, Trump didn’t need to elaborate. Britain is experiencing “totally ahistorical levels of mass migration” that is “rapidly transforming the country.” Natural population growth is near zero, but the actual population keeps climbing because arrivals are so high. Demographers predict the UK will become minority white-British within decades.
France has the same problems, arguably worse. Macron’s government just used a constitutional loophole to pass a budget without a vote because his coalition is so fractured he can’t get legislation through normally.
These are the leaders organizing emergency summits about Greenland.
The Chagos Warning
Trump also connected Greenland to another recent debacle—Britain’s surrender of the Chagos Islands.
The UK gave away territory in the Indian Ocean that hosts a critical American military base to a country within China’s sphere of influence. The Biden administration pretended this was no big deal. Trump isn’t pretending.
Surrendering strategic territory is “an act of stupidity and weakness,” Trump said. It underlines why America needs final say over sovereignty of land where its most important bases sit.
Land like, for instance, Greenland.
The message to European allies is clear: if you can’t be trusted to hold territory that matters to Western security, don’t be surprised when America decides to handle it directly.
The Macron Shelf Life
Trump’s dismissal of Macron wasn’t just rude—it was accurate.
Macron’s approval ratings are catastrophic. His coalition barely functions. He’s facing protests, economic stagnation, and a population increasingly hostile to his agenda. The French president who once positioned himself as Europe’s dynamic young leader is now a dead man walking politically.
Trump sees no point in negotiating seriously with someone who won’t be around to implement whatever they agree to. Why fly to Paris for a photo op with yesterday’s news?
The same logic applies to Starmer, whose Labour government is already facing backlash over immigration policy, economic struggles, and a general sense that Britain’s decline is accelerating under his watch.
America’s Primacy
The underlying message in all of this is simple: the Western alliance has a leader, and it’s not France or Britain.
European nations can attend summits, issue statements, and coordinate “responses” all they want. But when it comes to actual power—military, economic, strategic—America calls the shots. Trump’s just saying out loud what’s been true for decades.
Macron wants to organize resistance to American policy on Greenland. Trump’s response is basically: you and what army?
Britain and France can’t defend their own territories without American backing. They can’t project power beyond their borders. They can’t even control their own immigration policies. And they want to lecture the United States about sovereignty in the Arctic?
“They could straighten out their countries and make good if they really wanted to,” Trump said.
They could. They haven’t. And until they do, their opinions on American strategic decisions don’t carry much weight in the Oval Office.
