Mr Trump, leave our Nation Be: French FM
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday called on President Trump to stop interfering in France’s affairs after Trump made various claims about why protests were taking place in the country.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday called on President Trump to stop interfering in France’s affairs after Trump made various claims about why protests were taking place in the country.
“We do not take domestic American politics into account and we want that to be reciprocated,” Le Drian told LCI television, according to Agence France Presse. “I say this to Donald Trump and the French president says it too: leave our nation be.”
On Saturday, Trump said the Paris Climate Agreement wasn’t “working out so well for Paris” and used the protests taking place in the country to justify his argument.
“Protests and riots all over France,” Trump said. “People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment.”
According to the Hill, he also asserted that protesters were chanting “We Want Trump!” in the streets, the second time he’s shared a tweet with that claim. Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk claimed that protestors were chanting that phrase in a tweet Trump retweeted last Tuesday.
“Very sad day & night in Paris,” he tweeted later Saturday. “Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!”
The protests in the past week in France stem from French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to implement steep taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline as part of an effort to reduce emissions.
Macron announced last Tuesday that he would delay those plans.
Le Drian rejected Trump’s claim that demonstrators were shouting “We Want Trump” during the protests, saying that “the yellow vest demonstration was not protesting in English, as far as I know.” The source added.
He also added that most Americans did not support Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate deal.
