FRANCE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “French President Emmanuel Macron issued what he called an urgent plea to President Donald Trump and the U.S. to maintain its role as a global defender of democracy and human rights, warning American lawmakers of a ‘critical moment’ in which international institutions could crumble…He cautioned against ‘isolationism and nationalism’ and urged the U.S. to follow the rules-based order it had helped to create. ‘We wrote these rules, we should follow them,’ Mr. Macron said. Mr. Macron was delivering the address at the end of a three-day trip to Washington, in which he and Mr. Trump grabbed headlines with displays of affection. The friendly tone of the talks, however, produced little apparent progress in defusing underlying tensions over Mr. Trump’s threats to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear accord and to impose tariffs on France and other European countries.”
-Felicia Schwartz and Stacy Meichtry, “Macron Urges U.S. to Maintain Its Role as Global Defender of Democracy,” The Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2018 12:08 pm