Macron Says United States Is Falling Into «temptation» and «turning away from some of its allies»

His comments reflected growing concern in European capitals that shifts in U.S. strategy could weaken longstanding alliances and undermine collective approaches to security, trade, and diplomacy at a moment of heightened global instability.

Speaking at the Élysée Palace, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered unusually sharp remarks about the direction he sees the United States taking on the global stage, warning that one of the world’s most powerful countries risks contributing to a new fragmentation of international relations. Without naming specific policies, Macron cautioned against a tendency to divide up the world through unilateral decisions, arguing that Washington was falling into «temptation» while simultaneously «turning away from some of its allies». His comments reflected growing concern in European capitals that shifts in U.S. strategy could weaken longstanding alliances and undermine collective approaches to security, trade, and diplomacy at a moment of heightened global instability.

Those comments came just days after a series of international tensions, including what Macron described as unprecedented U.S. actions against Venezuela, the capture of its president, and renewed pressure on Greenland’s sovereignty, developments that he cited as evidence of an increasingly confrontational global posture. Against that backdrop, the French president warned that «We are living in a world of great powers, with a real temptation to divide up the world», framing the moment as a critical test for Europe’s strategic independence. Macron stressed that France and its European partners would not fall into the same temptations, vowing to «rejects the new colonialism and new imperialism», language that underscored his rejection of subordination to any dominant power. He added that this stance carries concrete consequences, arguing that Europe is now obliged to significantly reduce its dependence on both the United States and China in order to preserve its political autonomy, economic resilience, and capacity to act independently on the world stage.

In a continuation of his critique, Emmanuel Macron argued that the United States is increasingly exercising power in a manner reminiscent of a new form of colonialism and imperialism, warning that this shift is destabilizing the international order it once championed. He pointed to the weakening of global governance frameworks, stating that «Multilateral institutions are functioning less and less effectively», a decline he linked to the behavior of dominant powers. The French president went further by directly questioning Washington’s strategic orientation, declaring that «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», a remark that underscored his concern that American disengagement from collective norms is accelerating geopolitical fragmentation and eroding the foundations of postwar cooperation.