As President Trump attended the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of the first World War, his host, French President Macron launched an extraordinarily direct political attack.
Here’s what Donald Trump said a few weeks ago:
“You know they have a word, it sort of became old-fashioned, it’s called ‘nationalist.’ And I said, really? We’re not supposed to use that word? You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, OK? I’m a nationalist.”
Who could Emmanuel Macron have meant when he said this at the WWI commemoration:
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism by saying ‘our interests first, who cares about the others.’ We erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it grace, and what is essential – its moral values.“
The president of France is saying it’s wrong to put your own country’s interests first. He thinks something else — perhaps the European interest or the global interest should come first.
But who decides what that is?
What is Macron’s mandate, exactly, for putting the European or the global over the national? He was elected with French votes, not global votes.
He is calling for creating a European defense force. Is the formation of the European Union and the call for this military force, not the very thing he claims is nationalism?
If “loving your country and hating all other countries” is the definition of nationalism, this doesn’t really fit most of the movement that drove Trump to the presidency. Trump’s biggest fans don’t hate all other nations.
IIII It might be more accurate to say that the Trump-style nationalists don’t value much beyond our borders.
As a country, we’re not always quick to respond to far-off bloody massacres like the gassing of the Kurds or the Balkans or Rwanda, but we do denounce them. (Whether or not we actually give a damn, we care about what other countries think of us).
For quite a few presidencies, we’ve at least given lip service to the promotion of human rights abroad. We’ve generally tried to promote democracy and oppose dictatorships.
But over the last decade and a half or so, reaching out beyond our borders increasingly became associated with apologizing, making unilateral concessions, no good deed going unpunished and the United States getting the short end of the stick.
We have spent enormous blood and treasure trying to build a safer, more secure, and free world, and in response, plenty of world leaders — including those in countries we thought of as allies — treated America as a universal scapegoat.
So the French president said, in a clear reference to President Trump: “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nationalism is actually the epitome of morality for a national leader. It is the moral imperative for any national leader to prioritize the security and interests of his or her citizens above all else.
To place any other nation before one’s citizens is in fact immoral and a betrayal of the nation. It is in fact unpatriotic.
Macron is mistaken on many points, but he’s not alone.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and many other global leaders agree with Macron’s sentiment. Merkel chimed in similarly against President Trump.
Former White House adviser Dr. Sebastian Gorka slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s remarks on worldwide migration just this past week that appeared to be a veiled swipe at President Trump.
Speaking at a speech in Berlin last Wednesday, Merkel defended her country’s inclusion in the U.N.’s Global Migration Compact, which regulates the treatment of migrants.
The agreement is expected to be signed next month, but the United States withdrew last year.
Merkel said that people who think that they can solve problems on their own represent “nationalism in its purest form, not patriotism.”
Gorka said Saturday that it was “absolutely outrageous” that Merkel appeared to be “lecturing” the U.S.
“It was America’s nationalism that saved the world from the Nazis and the Third Reich and the imperialists of General Hideki Tojo’s Japan,” he said.
President Trump labeled himself as a “nationalist” at a rally in Texas last month, saying that he generally cares about America more than the rest of the world.
This latest worldwide immigration agreement calls for the management of migration at “local, national, regional and global levels.”
After the United States withdrew from the pact, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Australia and Israel have all said they wouldn’t sign the agreement either.
“Merkel has done more as one political individual to undermine the national sovereignty of the nation states of the EU than any other member,” Gorka added.
Unfortunately, some previous American presidents would agree with Macron and Merkel.
Some of our past presidents have at times become so interested in nation-building abroad, creating global consensus for trade deals, negotiating nuclear deals and working on other international agreements that they have become disconnected from prioritizing the interests of the American worker and taxpayer.
Diplomacy and deals are not good things in and of themselves; what matters is if they are pursued in the interests of the United States and our people.
There appears to be some confusion about what nationalism is. Some, like Macron, are of the mindset that nationalism is just another term for fascism or nations associated with fascists, such as the Vichy French (German occupied France) during World War II.
But that’s not how President Trump defines nationalism. The U.S. president is certainly not advocating for the dominating, horrific, nationalism embraced by the Nazi mass murderers who ruled Germany in the 1930s and 40s.
Instead, President Trump is embracing the nationalism of American Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill and great leaders of other nations who have dedicated themselves to serving their people and making their countries great.
It is not imperialist nor isolationist to suggest that the leaders of nations should be first and foremost concerned with their own nations and citizens.
The nationalism President Trump calls for is one that seeks an even playing field for all nations – not special deals and preferred treatment for the global elite.
It means countries should engage with each other – and where interests align, stand together as partners.
The partners should enter into mutual defense treaties like NATO and pay their fair share and contribute equally.
President Trump understands that he should not be sacrificing American sovereignty and our national priorities and wealth on the altar of globalist fairy tales.
The globalist approach of Western European leaders is based in the idea that we can all leave behind the borders of our nations and our history and heritage for a bright global future.
Fortunately, voters the world over are rejecting these ideas, reminding their leaders that we should be a community of unique nations, not a global one-world government.
America has prioritized our national interests throughout our history, with an adherence to the ideals that have made us a singular nation – from the rule of law to free markets. This has been a blessing to the world.
It is precisely because of these things that we have had the economic power to rescue Europe twice in the 20th century in the two world wars.
We must never sacrifice the health and wealth of Americans to satisfy a global consensus.
Our politicians should always have before them, as their utmost priority, the interest of the American worker and taxpayer and the desire to make America great. They must adhere to the values and beliefs that made our nation the envy of the world.
If we lose sight of those priorities and values, then we have chosen to decline.
President Trump understands this and is acting in our nation’s best interests and in the best interests of the American people.
Previous administrations literally bowed to foreign leaders.
Early in his presidency at a Latin American summit, President Obama sat as Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega spent 50 minutes furiously denouncing the United States as the root cause of all problems in Latin America.
Would Teddy Roosevelt have sat there and taken that? If our president won’t walk out on a 50-minute diatribe denouncing the United States of America, who will? If we don’t stand up for ourselves, why should we expect anyone else to do it?
When Trump says, “America first!” his supporters are applauding the idea of standing up for ourselves, of no longer having to sacrifice our priorities and interests for a vague sense of the global greater good.
So personally, I could care less what President Macron and Chancellor Merkel think.
I am a patriot.
I am a nationalist.
To me there is no difference.
How about you? Are you a patriot or a nationalist? Can you be both?