EMMANUEL Macron has launched a veiled attack on Donald Trump and warned that we are shifting towards a world “without rules”.
The French president blasted his US counterpart’s tariff threats – saying they made no sense while calling them an attempt to “subordinate Europe”.
Donning a pair of aviator shades at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, Macron took several hidden jabs at Trump in the face of the Greenland row.
Nato allies are scrambling to stop the US president from seizing the Danish territory – and have been threatened with 10 per cent tariffs if they don’t back down.
Macron said: “It’s a shift towards a world without rules, where international law is trampled underfoot and where the only law that seems to matter is that of the strongest.”
He also warned that “imperial ambitions” were resurfacing across the globe.
And he said that President Trump’s “endless accumulation of new tariffs” was “fundamentally unacceptable”.
Macron is wearing the Top Gun-style sunglasses to cover up a “harmless” eye problem caused by a ruptured blood vessel, he has explained.
The French leader also said: “Europe may be slow, but it’s predictable and has a rule of law.”
Seemingly taking a thinly veiled swipe at Trump, Macron said: “We do prefer respect over bullies.”
He also urged his allies to not think twice about using the EU’s “trade bazooka”.
“The crazy thing is we can be put in a situation where we have to use the anti-coercion instrument towards the US,” he noted.
“The anti-coercion mechanism is a powerful instrument and we should not hesitate to deploy it in today’s tough environment.”
This economic measure is designed to protect the union from political blackmail – and could see the US get hit by £81billion in tariffs from the bloc.
But fears are mounting that the tool – which would allow the EU to limit US trading – is barely threatening enough to sway Trump’s mind.
Macron added during his speech on Tuesday: “It doesn’t make sense to threaten allies with tariffs.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen also warned in Nuuk on Tuesday that military force against the Arctic territory was unlikely – but by no means impossible.
Panicking EU leaders will hold an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday as Nato alliance hangs in the balance in the face of a looming Trump invasion.
But the bloc will face Trump himself at the WEF in Davos on Wednesday for crunch talks – where they are expected to plead with him to reconsider his plans.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also hit out at Trump’s tariff threats at the Davos event on Tuesday.
She blasted them as “unacceptable” and called for an “independent Europe”.
Von der Leyen explained that a “seismic change” in global relations had given birth to an opportunity to build a “new form of European independence”.
Macron’s chat messages with the US president were also revealed in Trump’s latest Truth Social posts.
The American leader posted screenshots of the messages, where Macron says: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.”
He then offers to whip up a G7 meeting in Paris for Thursday and asks him to have a meal together before Trump heads back to the US.
Despite the warm dinner invitation, Trump has threatened to slap Macron’s wine and champagne industry with huge 200 per cent tariffs.
The move came in response to Macron reportedly snubbing Trump’s offer for him to join his new Board of Peace – an international initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts.
Trump said: “I’ll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and champagnes.
“And he’ll join, but he doesn’t have to join.”
The French leader was also part of an AI-generated image in which the US president revived his threats to annex Canada.
The spoof picture shows Macron with Trump during talks alongside European allies, including Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office.
The group appear to be speaking while sat next to a map of North and South America – where Canada, Venezuela and Greenland have US flags plastered over them.
Trump also shared a mock-up image of himself planting the US flag on Greenland in his latest threat to seize the coveted Danish island.
In a fresh round of claims to acquire the mineral-rich isle, Trump warned on Tuesday that Denmark “can’t protect” Greenland.
He claimed Nato allies would not “push back too much” on his words, while shrugging off European deployments to the territory as “not a military”.
President Trump said: “Nato has been warning Denmark for 20 years now… they’ve been warning Denmark about the Russian threat, it’s not only Russia, it’s also China.
“We have to have it. They have to have this done. They can’t protect it, Denmark.”
The US president has also lashed out at the UK in another Truth Social tirade – this time aimed at British plans to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
He said: “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.”
He branded the move a “GREAT STUPIDITY” before explaining why this it was “another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired”.
Under the pact, Britain is expected to pay Mauritius £90million a year for 99 years to maintain a lease on the key military base at Diego Garcia.
Moscow has also spoken out on Trump’s threats, with top Vladimir Putin ally Sergei Lavrov claiming Greenland is “not a natural part of Denmark”.
The Russian foreign minister’s comments came as a desperate attempt to back up mad Vlad’s territorial ambitions in Ukraine and Europe.
Copenhagen has also sent more troops to Greenland as Trump appears to be showing no sign of backing down on his threats.
Danish soldiers landed in Kangerlussuaq on Monday evening and will join the existing NATO force that was deployed last week which includes one British officer.
