Decoding Macron's Texts: What the French President Really Told Trump

DAVOS, Switzerland — Be careful sliding into the Donald’s DMs. The world might learn something about Trump — but more about you. The U.S. president’s affinity for screenshotting his texts with presidents and prime ministers instead of sharing the standard sanitized readouts of such leader-to-leader conversations offers an extraordinary level of insight into how power players are trying to woo Trump. Take the message Trump shared early Tuesday from French President Emmanuel Macron, which the Elysée Palace says is authentic. In it, Macron says he doesn’t understand the American strategy with respect to Greenland, which Trump is threatening to take over at the expense of transatlantic relations. The French president also offers to set up a G7 meeting in Paris — after Trump leaves Davos, where he is attending this year’s edition of the World Economic Forum — with several other major players on the margins, including the Russians. Macron then invites Trump to dinner in Paris on Thursday. The note seems straightforward enough, but Macron’s appeal to Trump’s ego and ambition speaks to a deeper subtext about the state of the geopolitical order. Friendship WHAT HE SAID “My friend” WHAT HE MEANT The French president is calling President Trump “his friend,” as he has done publicly. And some meetings between the leaders have gone well. But the two enjoy a mercurial relationship at best, amid knuckle-crunching encounters and Trump’s jibes over Macron’s diplomatic endeavors and energy. On Monday evening, the U.S. president didn’t display much affection for Macron after he refused to join Washington’s “Board of Peace” for the Gaza transition. “Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” Trump told reporters. Then he threatened to hit French wines and Champagnes with 200 percent tariffs. Syria WHAT HE SAID “We are totally in line on Syria“ WHAT HE MEANT Syria is, undoubtedly, an area of agreement for the duo. Both support the former Al-Qaeda member Ahmed al-Sharaa as Syria’s leader, despite ongoing issues over reconciling the country’s different communities. Highlighting Syria seems to be a good way to paper over other Trump and Macron’s myriad other disagreements: Washington’s support for far-right movements in Europe, the French president’s desire to impose stricter regulation on tech giants, the Israel-Gaza war, climate change and the role of the United Nations, to name just a few. Iran WHAT HE SAID “We can do great things on Iran” WHAT HE MEANT Another thing Paris and Washington agree on … to a certain extent. The G7 nations have threatened Iran with sanctions if the bloody crackdown on protesters in Tehran continues and the EU is also considering additional sanctions. There are some quite substantial differences, however. The French do not support bombing Iran, something Trump has threatened to do. Don’t forget, Paris helped forge the nuclear deal with Iran that Trump pulled out of during his first term. Greenland WHAT HE SAID “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland” WHAT HE MEANT This is Macron using his most euphemistic language during his direct conversation with Trump, about the subject roiling the global order right now. France has publicly been much more forceful in response to the U.S. president’s threats to tariff European allies who do not support his designs on Greenland. Macron has pushed for the EU to unleash its Anti-Coercion Instrument, the the so-called trade bazooka, while other leaders like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz want to give a chance to diplomacy. France has also sent a small contingent of troops to Greenland and is planning to deploy land, sea and air forces, though the details remain unspecified. Summits WHAT HE SAID “I can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon.” WHAT HE MEANT Timing is everything. If Macron sent that message Monday — a senior French official told POLITICO that appeared to be the case — he would have been proposing a meeting that directly clashes with an emergency EU leaders’ summit Thursday evening in Brussels, which may project a sense of disunity in the bloc. Macron’s invitation also underlines the issue of where to go when the transatlantic relationship hits the rocks. The EU is the main format for responding to Trump’s tariffs threat, but it doesn’t include the U.K., which is playing a key role on security guarantees for Ukraine and discussions on Greenland security. France is likely proposing the G7 format as it holds the rotating presidency of the group and includes major Arctic stakeholders like the U.K. and Canada. NATO is typically the privileged forum to discuss European defense and security. But it’s not really built to handle one member threatening another. Other leaders WHAT HE SAID “I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins.” WHAT HE MEANT Macron’s apparent willingness to invite the Russians to a G7 meeting in Paris alongside the Ukrainians and the Danes is likely to raise concerns among Europeans. The French president has repeatedly said Europeans should resume dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of peace talks between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia. However, Europeans have been divided over who should lead those talks and whether a European special envoy role should be created, as Moscow’s bombardment of Ukraine continues unabated.