Everyone knows Donald Trump does not handle rejection well. But he handles it worse when it comes from foreign leaders. This time, it came from French President Emmanuel Macron, who rejected Trump’s invitation to join his so-called Board of Peace.
On Jan. 20, reporters informed Trump that Emmanuel Macron had declined the invitation to join his newly announced “Board of Peace.” Macron’s refusal was polite, deliberate, and unsurprising. French officials had already signaled that Paris viewed the board as unserious, opaque, and diplomatically incoherent. But Trump’s response while speaking to reporters in Florida before boarding Air Force One was… less diplomatic.
“Oh, did he say that?” Trump said. “Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” he added. Ever seen a toddler crossing his arms and announcing, “I didn’t want it anyway,” five seconds after being told no? Trump really perfected that routine. And that was just the warm-up.
Trump then threatened to impose a 200% tariff on French wine and champagne. According to him, that economic punishment would force Macron to comply. “What I’ll do is, if they feel like costel, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes, and he’ll join,” Trump said. In other words: Join my peace board or I’ll economically punish your country.
But his tariff threats have grown old. What was actually hilarious was Trump pretending he didn’t care about Macron after getting the door slammed on his face.
Macron was being diplomatic, but Trump is being… Trump.
Macron’s decision wasn’t personal, but structural. According to French officials, the “Board of Peace” lacks clear authority, transparency, or legitimacy (via Le Monde). It notably excludes Palestinians, includes figures accused of war crimes, and gives Trump unilateral control. France has emphasized that any Gaza peace framework must be multilateral, international, and rooted in existing diplomatic mechanisms.
Trump, by contrast, appears to view diplomacy the way he views real estate negotiations. For him, rejection equals insult, and leverage means threats. So instead of acknowledging Macron’s reasoning, Trump pivoted to belittlement. He also insisted that Macron would be “out of office in a few months” to justify why “Nobody wants him.”
Unsurprisingly, that claim is plainly false. Macron’s term does not expire in “a few months,” and there has been no announcement of early departure. But Trump has never bothered with getting his facts right. His whole play was about reframing rejection as irrelevance.
The irony didn’t slip past social media users
Trump’s statement was already embarrassing, but his tariff threat escalated the situation from embarrassing to ironic. On one hand, Trump claimed “nobody wants” Macron, then on the other, he threatened tariffs to make him join. Make it make sense. As one user on X said, “Nobody wants him, but I’ll MAKE him join is quite the mixed message.”
Another added, “Sometimes I really don’t know if he is serious or joking because all his talks sound so stupid and illogical.” Trump insists his Board of Peace is attracting global interest and boasts of invitations sent to world leaders. But the moment one of them says no, the mask slips. Suddenly, the invitee is unwanted and irrelevant. As one user asked, “‘Nobody wants him??’ Why the f–k did you invite him then?”
Macron didn’t embarrass Trump by declining the invitation. But Trump embarrassed himself by proving exactly why serious leaders want nothing to do with his project. If this is how Trump handles a polite “no,” it’s hard to imagine how his “peace board” would handle actual conflict.
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