2025-05-01T22:00:00Z
Here is the speech from Claude Malhuret, French senator, and the English transcription below:
On March 4, in a speech to the French Senate, I asked this question: « Why, in the face of so many senseless decisions by their president, are Americans not reacting? » Today, that question is no longer relevant. Americans have reacted. There have been demonstrations in all major cities, parliamentarians challenged in town halls, governors refusing illegal decrees, judges annulling them, and polls plummeting. And, of course, I rejoice in this resistance. But I must also say, with all the frankness that friends owe each other, that for now, the protests, demonstrations, and opposition have not prevented the situation from worsening. Each day brings a new wave of outrageous announcements: unreasonable tariffs, arbitrary expulsions, attacks on social security, retirement, freedom of expression, education, justice, the constitution, veterans, voters’ rights, universities, and science. Donald Trump is not making decisions; he is seeking revenge.
Every day, confidence in America erodes, causing the stock market and the dollar to plummet, driving away buyers of U.S. Treasury bonds, and isolating the country behind a tariff wall. And, like Al Capone, by telling allies that they will pay up or face trouble, the man who claims to be making America great again is actually diminishing it. Each day, uncertainty increases. Surreal tariff tables of up to 150% are presented on television, only to be withdrawn the next day. Economic war with China is declared, only to be abandoned 48 hours later. The Federal Reserve chairman is threatened with dismissal, only for the decision to be reversed in the face of market turmoil. Decrees are challenged in court, adding to the confusion. Uncertainty is the economy’s worst enemy, and the « Donald Crash » was inevitable. It will continue at the pace of his erratic decisions. No one knows what he will do after the 90-day pause, but it is clear that the person who knows the least is Donald Trump himself.
Each day, submission is preferred over expertise. Cabinet members are appointed not despite, but because of their incompetence. A Secretary of Health who cannot even locate his gallbladder promotes his dubious theories about the dangers of vaccines or the origin of AIDS. The Secretary of Defense, between sips of gin, chats online with his family and friends about ongoing military operations, in full view of the world’s intelligence services. The chief trade advisor, or rather the « chief of fakery, » invents a fictitious economist to support his absurd theories. The Ukraine negotiations chief has been cozying up to a Putin-linked oligarch for years. As for the Vice President, he has managed, in just a few days, to become more hated in the United States than any of his predecessors, and equally despised throughout Europe after his hate-filled speech in Munich. Listening to him, one can imagine the endless rage of his life.
In my previous speech, I compared the new American government to Nero’s court. But it is also, above all, Caligula’s court. Caligula once appointed his horse as consul, but at least his horse did no harm. Every day, in the Oval Office, sitting in a chair that matches his hair, Trump parades a succession of heads of state before the press, like contestants on a reality TV show, seemingly wondering what they are doing there, forced to endure speeches dripping with self-satisfaction, vain ignorance, boastful rudeness, and an overdose of himself. They now know why they were invited, since Trump himself explained it: « to kiss his ass. »
But the worst, of course, is the betrayal. Since the humiliation of Zelensky in the Oval Office, which shocked the world and many Americans, each day brings further capitulation to Putin. Voting at the UN in favor of Russia alongside North Korea and Nicaragua, dismantling federal structures tasked with investigating Russian interference in the U.S., appointing a Director of National Intelligence whom the Russian propagandist Soloviev himself describes on Russian television as « Putin’s agent, » and shutting down Voice of America after 80 years of operation. And poor Witkov, the oligarchs’ friend, in charge of the Ukrainian dossier, which he knows nothing about, parrots the Kremlin every time he returns from Moscow. As a Department of Security official put it, « Putin is now on the inside. » Today, when the cat eats the mouse, he claims that the mouse attacked first, and Trump believes him, or pretends to. Is he compromised or simply utterly foolish? What is certain is that he is the best Russian president in all of American history. His plan to « extinguish the fire » in Ukraine goes beyond Putin’s wildest dreams: the annexation of Crimea, the occupation of four oblasts, no security guarantees for Kiev, and the plundering of mineral wealth. It is, of course, unacceptable to Ukrainians and catastrophic for Europeans.
I described the beginning of the Trump presidency as a tragedy. After 100 days, it turns out to be a farce, but a sinister one. Every decision made by the strongman of Mar-a-Lago has had disastrous effects. Economically: the stock market and dollar crash, rising interest rates, and the onset of recession. In foreign policy: the abandonment of allies, servility towards Moscow, and the failed trade war with China, where the instigator ended up getting soaked. Domestically: a general battle with states, officials, universities, and many others. Trump is moving faster and faster, but backwards. Mercantilist, nationalist, xenophobic, and retrograde recipes are producing the same results they always have throughout history, as the French writer Charles Péguy so aptly put it: « The triumph of demagogues is fleeting, but the ruins are eternal. »
But the worst is never certain. « The excesses of a year do not last long, » say the Italians. In three months, Trumpism is beginning to crumble. The unnatural alliance between billionaires and a populist base lasted only as long as the election campaign. Since then, tech billionaires and those who believed in their promises have lost their jobs. Musk has already left to try to save the day at Tesla, and Steve Bannon is leading the populist revolt against the GAFAM oligarchs. But it would be naive to believe that the edifice will collapse on its own. Resistance is necessary. This is what Europeans are trying to do, with infinite caution so as not to worsen the crisis. They have responded to the tariff hikes with a proposal to lower all tariffs to zero on both sides. They are responding to hostility by trying to maintain channels of communication. They are preparing, albeit too timidly, to continue supporting Ukraine on the day the « Moscow poodle » decides to abandon Zelensky for good. They are tentatively rearming.
But, of course, it is above all up to Americans to determine the future of their country, and thus, to a large extent, that of the world. For over 80 years, we have built together the free world in which we live today. And for over two centuries, we have shared the same values: democracy, human rights, and the freedom to undertake, which make every American and every European feel, deep down, that they belong to the same civilization, to the point that neither could have imagined that one day, in so little time, a president would set out to drive a wedge between them.
I have a message for my American friends: all defenders of freedom must redouble their efforts. They must convince Republican members of Congress, who have believed all their lives in free trade, alliances, world order, and the fight against totalitarian regimes, that Trump is dishonoring them. They must convince Democratic elected officials to make their voices heard more strongly than they do today. And they must finally convince all Americans to fight for the values that have made their nation the freest, richest, and most powerful in the world. I am certain that this moment will come sooner than we think.