Doing His Best Napoleon Impression

Europe’s self-proclaimed “strong man”, Emmanuel Macron, hosted newly elected President Donald Trump in 2017 when he visited France for the July 14th Bastille Day celebration at Dôme des Invalides where Napoléon is entombed.

Two months earlier, Macron celebrated his historic presidential victory at the Louvre as the youngest French ruler since Napoléon himself.  He stood beside the Louvre’s Pyramid on the square Cour Napoléon, once the home of the kings of France.  Rather than entering the square to the sounds of “La Marseillaise”, the French national anthem for hundreds of years, he ordered the playing of “Ode to Joy” by German composer Ludwig von Beethoven.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Macron, he hosted him at Versailles, the sumptuous palace that became the symbol of France’s absolute monarchy.

I think you get where I’m going here. Macron equates himself as one of a caste of befeathered emperors and perfumed prince bishops that ruled Europe for centuries. 

It doesn’t end there. Like Louis XIV, the Sun King who said “L'état, c'est moi” (I am the state), Macron is egotistical enough to court the Illuminati-esoterica crowd at Bilderberg comparing himself to the Roman god Jupiter who weighs his rare pronouncements carefully and sits above the fray of regular affairs.  What a schmuck.

Eighteen months into his term as France’s president, Macron’s approval ratings continue to slip, with only 26 percent of French people saying they have confidence in him.

The reason the French are disenchanted was outlined in a published report by the Los Angeles Times on October 3, 2017:

“He alienated conservatives by engaging in an ugly public spat with the army, France's most beloved institution, over his proposal to cut nearly $1 billion in defense spending in order to meet EU deficit targets. The army chief, Gen. Pierre de Villiers, resigned in protest after Macron suggested in newspaper interviews that he was angry at having his decisions questioned.”

“Last month, he annoyed liberals when he called opponents of his economic reforms "lazy"—recalling an incident from 2016 when, as Hollande's economy minister, he retorted to a pro-labor demonstrator who jeered at his well-tailored suit: ‘The best way to afford a suit is to work.’"

“The elitist moniker has stuck to Macron as he pushes ahead with his first salvo in the reform battle: undoing some of the protections guaranteed to French workers, perhaps the most pampered labor force in the industrialized world.”

Speaking at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris at a World War I commemoration ceremony attended by President Trump and 70 other world leaders, Macron suggested nationalism could lead to the same death and devastation seen during that war.

“Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By saying our interests first, who cares about the others, we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great and what is essential: its moral values.  I know there are old demons which are coming back to the surface. They are ready to wreak chaos and death. History sometimes threatens to take its sinister course once again.”

You don’t have to be a supporter of President Trump to feel the outrage of such a smug lecture. Maybe Mr. Macron should have first reflected on the nearly 117,000 Americans who made the supreme sacrifice in World War I or the 29,000 who perished on the French coast of Normandy in Operation Overlord on D-Day during World War II who saved his country about nationalism.

American nationalism animated our mighty republic to save France and the world twice during those conflagrations.

Instead of displaying a shred of gratitude for being liberated by the first superpower in world history uninterested in conquest he gave America an imperious dressing down.  My father was on Omaha Beach on D-Day. 

When President Ronald Reagan commemorated the 40th anniversary of D-Day, he stood on the very spot where Allied soldiers had stormed ashore to liberate Europe from the yoke of Nazi tyranny.  Speaking to the veterans who climbed the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc he said, “You are men who in your lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor.”

On June 5, 1940 Nazi forces penetrated French Gen. Maxime Weygand’s forces on the Somme River and began to march south toward Paris, reaching the capital on June 14.  The city had been abandoned by the French government and the Nazis were allowed to march down the Champs-Élysées as Parisians watched in shock and sadness.

Were it not for America, the French would be speaking German. It’s no wonder an old joke persists even today about the French military:  one of white flags, hands thrust aloft and tails tucked between their legs in retreat.

FOR SALE:  French rifle.  Never fired.  Dropped only once.

Adolf Hitler, accompanied by Albert Speer and other staff members, walks away from the Eiffel Tower after a tour during his visit to Paris in 1940. Hitler's armies took most of France, as well as Belgium and Holland, in May and June of 1940. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

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