French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s foreign policy following the U.S. capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and renewed pressure to bring Greenland under American control.
Macron issued his rebuke after a U.S. operation on Jan. 3 successfully apprehended Maduro and his wife, who now face federal narco-terrorism charges. Speaking during his annual foreign policy address, the French president urged Europe to reject what he called a return to “new colonialism.”
“The United States is an established power that is gradually turning away from some of its allies and breaking free from the international rules that it used to promote,” Macron said, according to Politico. “Every day, people are wondering if Greenland will be invaded, or whether Canada will face the threat of becoming the 51st [U.S.] state.”
His remarks came just days after the Trump administration joined a coalition of nations in committing to “binding” long-term security guarantees for Ukraine.
The Trump administration has intensified its insistence that Greenland should become U.S. territory in recent weeks, a position long held by the president.
“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal,” the White House said on Monday.
“Multilateral institutions are functioning less and less effectively,” Macron added, according to the Guardian. “We are living in a world of great powers, with a real temptation to divide up the world.”
France, he said, “rejects the new colonialism and new imperialism – but also vassalage and defeatism. What we have achieved for France and in Europe is a step in the right direction. Greater strategic autonomy, less dependence on the US and China.”
Macron did not explicitly reference Venezuela in his speech, but did post on X on Saturday that the Latin American country “can only rejoice” at Maduro’s removal.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday also strongly criticized the U.S. foreign policy and urged the world not to let the world order disintegrate into a “den of robbers,” according to Reuters. Steinmeier described Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a watershed, but argued that recent U.S. behaviour represented a second “epochal rupture.”
“There is the breakdown of values by our most important partner, the USA, which helped build this world order,” Steinmeier said in remarks at a symposium on Wednesday.
“It is about preventing the world from turning into a den of robbers, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want, where regions or entire countries are treated as the property of a few great powers,” he said.
The White House responded to the European leaders’ comments, saying the president was elected with a “resounding mandate to implement America First foreign policy.”
“He has delivered by negotiating fairer trade deals, securing a five percent defense spending pledge among NATO allies, killing narcoterrorists smuggling illicit narcotics into our homeland, and more while simultaneously ending eight wars,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “All of the President’s actions have made the world safer and more stable – such as obliterating Iran’s nuclear facilities, which paved the way for today’s peace in the Middle East.”
The criticism from European leaders comes just days after Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the U.S would “always be there for NATO, even if they won’t be there for us.”
Trump also touted his success in pushing NATO members to agree to raise their defense spending from 2% of gross domestic product to 5% by 2035.
“Everyone said that couldn’t be done, but it could, because, beyond all else, they are all my friends,” Trump wrote, adding that Russia and China would have “zero fear” of NATO without the U.S.
Following a high-level summit in Paris on Tuesday, the Trump administration joined a five-point joint declaration alongside major NATO allies and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The declaration includes “binding commitments” to support Ukraine against future Russian aggression if a ceasefire with Moscow is reached. It also calls for a U.S.-led “ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” to address violations, assign responsibility and determine remedies.
The Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy (NDS), released in December, reaffirms the importance of the U.S.–European alliance, but emphasizes that Europe must contribute much more to its own defense.
The document also warns that demographic changes within NATO countries could affect alliance cohesion.
“Over the long term, it is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European,” the NDS reads. “As such, it is an open question whether they will view their place in the world, or their alliance with the United States, in the same way as those who signed the NATO charter.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with comment from the White House.
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