“For me, it’s simple. The world is made up of herbivores and carnivores. If we decide to remain herbivores, then the carnivores will win and we will be a market for them,” he told European leaders during a gathering in Budapest.
Macron’s own leadership on the European Union stage has taken a hit following snap elections he called for earlier this year, and in recent days he has tried to reposition himself as the bloc’s bridge to the U.S. He was one of the first leaders to congratulate Trump on Wednesday.
“I think, at the very least, we should choose to become omnivores. I don’t want to be aggressive, just that we know how to defend ourselves on all these subjects.”
One EU diplomat [vetted] in Budapest said Trump’s election could give the French leader a new “raison d’être” as chief cheerleader for a bolder, more independent European Union, namely when it comes to trade and security. The diplomat, like others quoted in the story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
While the French leader didn’t name countries, Europe faces potential trade wars on two fronts, with the U.S. and with China. The European Commission has hit Chinese electric vehicles with tariffs and faces potential trouble with Washington if Trump follows through on threats to impose tariffs on EU goods.
“We [in Europe] think that we should delegate our geopolitics to the United States of America, that we should delegate our growth debt to our Chinese clients, that we should delegate our technological innovation to the American hyper-scalers,” he said. “That’s not the best idea.”
