{"id":70117,"date":"2026-01-21T03:12:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/2026\/01\/21\/we-prefer-respect-to-bullies-macron-hits-back-at-trump-french-president-warns-against-intimidating-europe\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T03:12:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:12:43","slug":"we-prefer-respect-to-bullies-macron-hits-back-at-trump-french-president-warns-against-intimidating-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/2026\/01\/21\/we-prefer-respect-to-bullies-macron-hits-back-at-trump-french-president-warns-against-intimidating-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;We prefer respect to bullies&#8217;: Macron hits back at Trump; French President warns against intimidating Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"MwN2O\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"T22zO\">\n<section class=\"D3Wk1  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  VtlfQ\" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"D3Wk1\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"zPaFh\">\n<div class=\"wJnIp\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-126914036,imgsize-536711,width-400,resizemode-4\/-.jpg\" alt=\"'We prefer respect to bullies': Macron hits back at Trump; French President warns against intimidating Europe\" title=\"Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron (AP file photo)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"cj2hz img_cptn\"><span title=\"Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron (AP file photo)\">Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron (AP file photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>French President <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/emmanuel-macron\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Emmanuel Macron<\/a> on Wednesday hit back at his American counterpart <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/donald-trump\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Donald Trump<\/a> after the latter shared a screenshot of their private conversation on social media, saying he \u201cstands by his words\u201d and that Europe would not yield to bullies or be intimidated, referring to Trump&#8217;s constant demand to absorb Greenland in the US.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>Responding to questions about the leak, Macron said he took full responsibility for his actions and remarks. \u201cI take responsibility for everything I do. I tend to be consistent in what I say in public and in what I do in private,\u201d he said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/>Asked whether he would meet Trump on the sidelines of the <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/world-economic-forum\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">World Economic Forum<\/a> in Davos, Macron ruled it out, explaining that he would have left by the time the US president arrived.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>Macron also dismissed reports of a <!-- -->G7 summit<!-- --> being scheduled this week. \u201cNo meeting is scheduled. The French presidency is willing to hold one,\u201d he told news agency AFP in Switzerland&#8217;s Davos.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>While other European leaders struck a cautious tone to avoid escalating the transatlantic rift, French President Emmanuel Macron took a far more confrontational stand.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Macron said France and Europe would not \u201cpassively accept the law of the strongest,\u201d warning that doing so would amount to \u201cvassalisation.\u201d He stressed that Europe would continue to defend territorial sovereignty and the rule of law, even as the world, in his words, shifts toward \u201ca rules-free order.\u201d This, he said, could include the <!-- -->European Union<!-- --> responding with tough trade sanctions of its own.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"25\"\/>\u201cWe prefer respect to bullies,\u201d Macron said. \u201cAnd we prefer the rule of law to brutality.\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/>Macron\u2019s remarks came after US President Trump threatened steep tariffs on French wine and champagne and posted private messages exchanged with the French leader &#8212; an unusual breach of diplomatic protocol.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"29\"\/>A day earlier, Trump had shared details of a private conversation with Macron on Truth Social, launched a sharp personal attack saying the French president \u201cwill be out of office soon,\u201d and after being told that Macron was unwilling to join his proposed \u201cboard of peace.\u201d<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/world\/europe\/we-prefer-respect-to-bullies-macron-hits-back-at-trump-french-president-warns-against-intimidating-europe\/articleshow\/126913779.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron (AP file photo) French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday hit back at his American counterpart Donald Trump after the latter shared a screenshot of their&hellip;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768965164_unnamed-file.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sochtimes.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}