French President Emmanuel Macron doesn’t think Donald Trump is handling the Iran war with the gravity it deserves.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Macron said that the former game show host needs to be “serious” and avoid the urge to talk to television cameras.
“This is not a show. We are talking about war and peace and the lives of men and women,” Macron said. “You don’t say every day the opposite of what you said the day before.”
Macron’s statements came after the day after Trump delivered a televised address on the status of the war in Iran. The rambling and unfocused speech offered little in the way of specifics. With energy costs rising, Trump threatened to bomb the major oil exporter “back to the Stone Ages [sic] where they belong.” The heated speech about an unpopular war left Trump critics questioning the utility of the stunt.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be speaking every day. You should just let things quieten down,” Macron said on Thursday.
Macron also weighed in the president’s grumbling about leaving NATO. Trump called the organization a “paper tiger” that he was “never swayed by” in a recent interview with The Telegraph. Macron said such talk weakens the bonds of the alliance regardless of if the United States pulls out of the organization.
“Alliances like NATO are valuable because of what is unspoken – meaning the trust behind them,” Macron said.
