Europeans begin reacting to Trump

Emmanuel Macron’s comments come as Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, warns against turning world into ‘robber’s den’

Jan 8, 2026

The presidents of France and Germany have sharply condemned US foreign policy under Donald Trump, saying respectively that Washington was “breaking free from international rules” and the world risked turning into a “robber’s den”.

In unusually strong and apparently uncoordinated remarks, Emmanuel Macron and Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned the postwar rules-based international order could soon disintegrate.

“The US is an established power, but one that is gradually turning away from some of its allies and breaking free from the international rules that it was until recently promoting,” Macron told France’s diplomatic corps at the Élysée Palace on Thursday.

“Multilateral institutions are functioning less and less effectively,” the French president said. “We are living in a world of great powers, with a real temptation to divide up the world.”

He said France “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.”

The comments came as EU leaders – torn between the needs to defend international law and to keep the US onboard as a vital economic partner and defence ally in Ukraine and beyond – struggle to agree a coordinated response to Washington’s actions.

While neither president said so directly, both were widely presumed to be referring to last weekend’s US raid on Caracas and capture of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, and to Trump’s repeatedly stated aim of taking control of Greenland.

The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Thursday that the bloc was weighing its response if US plans to acquire Greenland materialise. “The messages we hear are extremely concerning,” she said. “If this is a real threat … then what would be our response?”