Donald Trump has found new friends in France, ones that also don’t like the French president. In 24 hours, the American president mentioned the “gilets jaunes” (yellow jacket) demonstrations twice on his favorite communication tool, Twitter, where he has more than 56 million followers.
In a tweet posted on December 4, the American president used the protest movement to tease his best frenemy President Emmanuel Macron and promote his own political agenda.
I am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protestors in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago. The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2018
….in the world. I want clean air and clean water and have been making great strides in improving America’s environment. But American taxpayers – and American workers – shouldn’t pay to clean up others countries’ pollution.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2018
The Elysée Palace did not wish to comment on this message, which comes at a time when relations between the two leaders are cooling down after disputes over trade, climate and multilateralism.
Trump also retweeted a message with almost entirely false content written by Charlie Kirk, a 25-year-old, far-right conservative figure in the United States. The tweet, sent to his 842,000 followers and retweeted to Trump’s 56 million followers, has been retweeted over 28,000 times and liked nearly 82,000 times since it was tweeted and retweeted on December 3.
There are riots in socialist France because of radical leftist fuel taxes
Media barely mentioning this
America is booming, Europe is burning
They want to cover up the middle class rebellion against cultural Marxism
“We want Trump” being chanted through the streets of Paris
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) December 4, 2018
Several American media outlets immediately questioned the veracity of the content of this tweet. “Nothing in the tweet is even remotely accurate,” explains Vox. “The protesters are mostly working-class folks who are angry at what they see as an out-of-touch elitist president whose policies favor the wealthy and corporations at the expense of working-class French people. That is quite literally the opposite of a ‘middle class rebellion against cultural Marxism.'”
Nor does Kirk provide evidence that pro-Trump songs have been launched in Paris — a piece of fake news also propagated by conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh. It’s possible (rather, likely) that his claims are based on a video recorded in London, as Newsweek states. A Charlie Kirk spokesperson did not respond to our request for comment.
France 24’s White House correspondent Philip Crowther called out Kirk on Twitter for his false tweet.
Lies being re-tweeted by the President: Europe is obviously not burning, and “we want Trump” is not being chanted through the streets of Paris. Also, the fuel taxes are not radical leftist and France is not socialist. Any other lies? pic.twitter.com/fOZSvAPMYW
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) December 4, 2018
