Europe Has a France Problem

Europe Has a France Problem

Paris thinks it has found a way to finally remake the European Union in its own image.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, on Oct. 27, 2023. August 4, 2025, 7:54 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

For the French political elite, this is a moment of scarcely concealed glee. The Trump administration’s deep hostility toward Europe—including the imposition of steep new tariffs, verbal attacks on European values, open support for far-right parties, and threats to invade Greenland—vindicates the vision of a strategically autonomous continent held by generations of French leaders. It was French President Charles de Gaulle, after all, who repeatedly expressed his belief in the 1960s that it