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During a speech in Georgia on Wednesday, Donald Trump claimed he prevented “wars with France” while he was in the White House.
“You have no idea what I did in the White House,” Trump told the crowd in Duluth, Georgia, at a Turning Point PAC rally. “I stopped wars with France. France, you know the France story. They were going to charge us, think of this, 25 percent . I have to protect American companies whether we like ‘em or not.”
The former president then mocked the accent of French president Emmanuel Macron, whom he dubbed a “wiseguy,” and claimed he ended a potential trade dispute in a day by threatening the French leader over the phone.
Trump and Macron – watched by the French and American first ladies – plant a tree outside the White House in 2018. The tree came from Belleau Woods in France, where US forces suffered more than 9,000 casualties during a First World War battle (AFP via Getty Images)
“We’re not a stupid country anymore, Emmanuel,” Trump claims he said. “He’s used to dealing with stupid people over there. We’ve had some beauties, the deals that we allow.”
The former president also claimed he wished he recorded tapes of his conversations from the White House, but decided against it because it was reminiscent of scandal-plagued president Richard Nixon.
The tale onstage in Georgia appeared to be a vast simplification of a months-long trade dispute from the Trump administration.
In July of 2019, Macron signed a bill into law that would charge large tech firms a three percent tax based on where their services were used, rather than where they were based.
The tax was projected to raise France €400m a year from U.S. firms like Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook and Apple.
After the tax was signed, Trump threatened to levy billions in tariffs on marquee French exports like wine, cheese, and luxury fashion items, and, to a gourmet obsessed nation, put forth the ultimate insult: that he liked American wine better.
France’s agriculture minister called the comments “moronic.”
By January of 2020, Macron said he and Trump had a “great discussion” about the trade situation, and France and the U.S. reportedly reached an agreement where France would suspend down payments on that year’s tax and Washington would hold off on its tariff threat.
The truce lasted through the end of the Trump administration, which decided before leaving office in January of 2021 to decline to impose tariffs on the French goods in question.
Elsewhere during the Duluth rally, Trump claimed Joe Biden had engaged in “election interference” by urging supporters to “lock up” Donald Trump “politically.”
France is generally regarded as the United States’ oldest ally, whose military cooperation was a significant factor in defeating the British during the American War of Independence.