Emmanuel Macron pans Trump’s policies in Congress speech

French President Emmanuel Macron has set aside temporarily his newfound friendship with US President Donald Trump to take aim at many of the latter’s policies. He spoke before the US lawmakers on Wednesday, saying United States must be involved with the world.

Macron’s three-day visit to America saw him literally holding hands while walking with Trump. The two appeared to have developed a close friendship, even embracing and kissing during photo ops. Trump, who has had found quite a few detractors among world leaders, appeared to be delighted that he had made a friend in the French leader finally.

But friends or not, Macron was down to business come Wednesday when he addressed Congress. He criticised some of Trump’s agenda, including his decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement last year, as well as the Iran nuclear deal. Macron said France would not abandon the Iran nuclear deal primarily because “we signed it.”

“Our objective is clear. Iran shall never possess any nuclear weapons. Not now, not in five years, not in 10 years,” he said. “We should not abandon it if we don’t have something more substantial instead. That is my position.”

Macron even used Trump’s own slogan as a call to “make our planet great again” while speaking about the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. “I’m sure one day the US will come back and join the Paris agreement,” he said. “We are killing our planet. Let’s face it, there is no Planet B.”

Without naming Trump, the French president also took aim at protectionism and fear-mongering, which are the basis of Trumpism.

“I believe that against ignorance, we have education; against inequality, development; against cynicism, trust and good faith; against fanaticism, culture’ against disease and epidemic, medicine; against the threats on the planet, science,” Macron said. He also spoke of multilateralism, saying it was the US that invested multilateralism, and it’s not time that US help and reinvent it.

Macron, dubbed by the media as the “Trump whisperer” because of his new friendship with the older leader, has already left US. Although he appeared to have criticism many of Trump’s policies, it also seems that he had Trump’s attention and his trust.