We lost France — to China.
President Emmanuel Macron broke emphatically with U.S. leadership on China this week, declaring that Europe would not be drawn into a looming confrontation over Taiwan, regardless of what the United States thought was necessary for the defense of democracy.
He defied President Joe Biden even while American money and weapons are pouring into Europe, once again, to defend it from Russian aggression.
Macron’s betrayal took place just months after Biden hosted him for the first state dinner of his administration. “[W]e’re still united by the greatest causes: democracy, liberty, equality, opportunity, and freedom,” Biden declared in December.
Evidently not.
White House spokesman John Kirby did his best to defend the “terrific bilateral relationship we have with France.” But few, even in the credulous press corps, seemed to believe him.
TOPSHOT – Chinas President Xi Jinping (L) and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron review a honour guard during the official welcoming ceremony in Beijing on April 6, 2023. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden has bragged, repeatedly, that he has restored ties with U.S. allies, which he claims were harmed by his predecessor. Yet in just over two years in office, Biden has managed to destroy several key American alliances.
The most alarming case is that of Saudi Arabia. When President Donald Trump left office, the Saudis were helping the U.S. isolate Iran, and had given their blessing to the Abraham Accords, bringing peace to the region.
But then Biden, driven by the Democrats’ newfound concern for human rights in any country perceived to have been friendly to Trump, pulled back American support for the Saudi war against Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Relations declined from there.
When Biden went begging for oil — after killing U.S. pipelines and production — the Saudis snubbed him. Now, under Chinese auspices, the Saudis are restoring relations with the Iranian regime.
The Chinese are also gaining a foothold in Europe, where they are making proposals to end the war between Russia and Ukraine while Biden talks about continuing the fight.
Biden has made a pompous display of U.S. support for Ukraine, but he did the opposite for the first several months of his administration, lifting Trump’s sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Geneva summit. He practically painted a target on Kyiv.
In Latin America, Biden tore up agreements that Trump had reached with several countries to help limit the flow of migrants to the southern U.S. border. In Venezuela, Biden is propping up tyranny, buying oil from the rogue regime.
And China is developing closer ties to the region while the Monroe Doctrine, trashed a decade ago by then-Secretary of State (now climate change czar) John Kerry, has become a historical curiosity.
Meanwhile, Biden is spurning Israel, the one country that desperately wants to be his friend. The president has refused, for months, to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was elected late last year.
Instead, he has trashed Netanyahu’s judicial reforms and supported the opposition’s efforts to overthrow the government — while pursuing a “partial” nuclear deal that would embolden Iran as a threshold nuclear power and hegemon.
When Biden and the Democrats talk about restoring relations with allies, what they mean is satisfying the anti-American elites in posh capitals who scorn American power and culture — until they need rescue.
Far from repairing relations with U.S. allies — relations that Trump changed, but strengthened — Biden has hurt them.
The rot is likely to continue as long as our military remains depleted and our politics remain comically “woke.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.