PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the Trump administration for defying the rules-based global order after toppling Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and renewing his threats to annex Greenland.
“The United States is an established power that is gradually turning away from some of its allies and breaking free from the international rules that it used to promote,” Macron said during his annual foreign policy address.
Macron used the speech to paint an image of predatory global powers seeking to divide the world into spheres of influence, with the U.S. dominating Western Hemisphere under the so-called Donroe Doctrine.
“We are evolving in a world of great powers, where there’s a real temptation to carve up the world,” he said. “What has happened these last few months, and sometimes last few days, does not diminish this assessment.”
The French president initially came under fire for his emollient reaction to Maduro’s ouster. He wrote online that the Venezuela “can only rejoice” with his departure, omitting to mention whether the method broke international law.
In his speech Thursday, Macron accused the U.S. of breaking rules on trade and “some elements of security.”
The French president did not specifically mention Venezuela or Greenland, though both are top concerns for Paris, which is helping to craft a European response to Trump’s threats against the self-ruling Danish territory.