11/14/2018

FRANCE/SOCIAL MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The French president responded Wednesday [11-14-18] evening to President Trump’s scathing personal attack on him, declining to lash out and instead taking the long view. In a television interview on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which President Emmanuel Macron was visiting, he made clear that he was not going to respond in kind, but hew to both countries’ longstanding common interests…Mr. Trump’s tweets were aimed at his domestic constituency, Mr. Macron said. He is ‘doing American politics,’ Mr. Macron said. Mr. Macron was responding to questions from a reporter from TF1, the French network, about the rapid-fire series of angry messages posted by Mr. Trump two days after returning from France, where he had attended ceremonies hosted by Mr. Macron commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Responding in part to the French president’s sharp critique of nationalism, Mr. Trump highlighted the French leader’s low approval rating and accused him of trying to ‘change the subject’ to avoid talking about France’s unemployment levels, which have remained close to 10 percent despite economic and labor overhauls.”

Alissa J. Rubin, “Macron’s Response to Trump: ‘I Do Not Do Policy or Diplomacy by Tweets’,” The New York Times online, November 14, 2018