Look, Trump says he’s going to “get” Greenland, which is a European country for the moment. Trump is threatening Canada. Did the British prime minister protest that? No! When a journalist asked him about it, he was the one who got defensive. He said, “You’re trying to find a divide between us that doesn’t exist.” Quebec is in Canada. Did you hear Macron protesting? No. Trump threatened Mexico. Is anyone protesting? It’s political submission.
What about Ukraine? What would you like to see happen there?
We did everything we could. We supplied weapons, we provided money, we opened our markets to Ukraine. We imposed a lot of economic sanctions on Russia that had no effect. And everyone says we must continue. OK, fine. Carry on. But the best solution is, instead, to just discuss peace.
Of course, we cannot accept an invasion. We, the French, have been invaded, we cannot accept even the concept of invasion. But we need a method for peace. We need a method for diplomacy, for a concerted European diplomacy. And there isn’t one. We must return to the discussion with greater force. The North Americans have no place in the negotiations. It’s not their territory. It’s not their continent. Why are we discussing peace in Europe in Saudi Arabia? It makes no sense. We must discuss it ourselves, directly with the Russians, guaranteeing it through mutual security. Until we do that, we’re not defending our interests, we’re just flexing our muscles.
And China?
I’ll start with a question: What is the problem? Why is China a problem?
Years ago, no one was saying that China was a problem. The United States certainly wasn’t. I benefited greatly. Everyone profited. Now, all of a sudden, it’s a problem. Why? What’s the issue? They are very productive. They’re very advanced technically in dozens of areas. But what’s the problem? Now there’s a question of military competition, particularly over Taiwan. We all agreed that there was only one China. And now we have to say that there are two. But it wasn’t a problem for there to be two Germanys that turned into one, was it?
There’s a real problem with how this is all framed. It’s painful for me to see how much we are wasting our time, instead of trying to put together coalitions to more effectively deal with the consequences of climate change. Trump thinks he’ll get away with it, that he can bully China and not end up in a war. But if he spends all his days creating incidents, he will end up having a war. I think the behavior toward China is totally irresponsible. But an empire only does one thing: It wants to maintain its domination.