Trump Floats 200% Champagne Tariff and Reveals Macron's Text
Source: Bloomberg
US President Donald Trump took a swipe at French leader Emmanuel Macron for rejecting an invitation to back his latest peace initiative and suggested he could impose a crushing tariff on champagne in retaliation.
"Nobody wants him because he's going to be out of office very soon," Trump told reporters Monday local time, after being informed Macron would decline his invitation. "I'll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he'll join," he added.
-snip-
Trump wants the full constitution and remit of the Board of Peace signed in Davos on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. But other invitees are also skeptical.
Alongside France, the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, as well as Canada, are all set to decline Trump's invitation to take part, according to people familiar with the thinking in their capitals.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-19/macron-to-decline-trump-s-invitation-to-join-his-peace-board
The text was of Macron's private message to Trump, which included some flattery, which Trump apparently wanted the world to see, just as he wanted the world to see some flattery in a note from the head of NATO. And Trump also posted an AI picture demeaning to the European leaders and Greenland and Canada.
From an article about this in the Independent:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/trump-message-macron-greenland-denmark-b2903641.html
-snip-
The apparent message in full read: "My friend, We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran. I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland. Let us try to build great things: 1) i can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins 2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us. Emmanuel."
Trump also shared an AI image of him talking to European leaders in The White House with the American Flag over Greenland.
-snipping to get to the private message from the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte-
It read: "Mr. President, dear Donald - what you accomplished in Syria today is incredible. I will use my media engagements in Davos to highlight your work there, in Gaza, and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can't wait to see you. Yours, Mark"
That disgusting AI image - which you can see in the Independent's article - shows Trump in the Oval Office, addressing the European leaders as if they're underlings, and in the background is a map of North America showing not just Greenland but Canada as well covered by the American flag.
Editing to add a screenshot of Trump's Truth Social post with that AI slop image. The map has Venezuela covered by the American flag as well.

Bread and Circuses
(1,656 posts)Completely humiliated and defeated when he demands MORE Tribute and Gifts.
This is a mobster running a protection racket.
It never stops. Until It IS Annihilated.
Theres no middle ground , no talking , no peace. ONLY Total subjection . Wake UP.
highplainsdem
(60,349 posts)Bread and Circuses
(1,656 posts)MadameButterfly
(3,802 posts)They can't give up Greenland because they were too proud to praise a man who they despise. It's well known that Trump is easily manipulated by flattery. Let's wait on getting mad until they give in on something substantive. Which they won't.
Bread and Circuses
(1,656 posts)lastlib
(27,640 posts)you'll have results similar to 1939, the last time Europe grovelled to a fascist madman.
"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got."
SheltieLover
(77,298 posts)🍾🥂🍾🥂🍾🥂🍾🥂🍾🥂🍾🥂
Chemical Bill
(3,072 posts)I'm not the only person with Moet in the fridge.
SheltieLover
(77,298 posts)Aristus
(71,776 posts)Can't wait to pop that cork...
msongs
(73,127 posts)BidenRocks
(2,853 posts)when he's dead!
2naSalit
(100,357 posts)What if the EU countries decide to arrest his sorry ass and deliver him to The Hague?
Wouldn't that be nice?
DFW
(59,784 posts)The questions come hard and fast and there are no answers.
Is he really going to put all these tariffs in place?
Will he really attack Greenland or Canada?
Will the USA really try to occupy Venezuela?
You know hes certifiable. Will the Republicans or his cabinet EVER consent to his removal?
Will you ever again have a president like Clinton or Obama or Biden? Or is your country finished as a world leader? Dont you have anybody there who can inspire the population AND take a more sane direction?
Im rapidly running out of answers. Which way to the Bastille?
lastlib
(27,640 posts)"Storming the Bastille" may be our only hope for deliverance from this evil. I HOPE it doesn't come to that, but I fear the worst.
róisín_dubh
(12,244 posts)Everyone know Im from the US and the questions and comments- good Lord.
One of my mates suggested I take accent lessons
We were in Türkiye for several weeks and I just let my partner speak for me most of the time we were out in town or shopping. I got a lot of questions from Brits, Germans and the Turkish staff. It was exhausting.
DFW
(59,784 posts)I had several Turkish friends while in college, and there are several million Turks in Germany. Not all those of Turkish nationality are ethnic Turks, of course. My best Turkish pal in my town outside Düsseldorf is an Alawite Kurd, whose language is related to Kurdish, sort of like German and Dutch, but is not so close as to be mutually intelligible, such as Swedish and Norwegian. He is fluent in Turkish because there were no schools in Alawite Kurdish where he grew up. He has taught me a few phrases in his language, but it is not a written language as far as I know, so I have no reference to fall back on. My friends in college taught me enough Turkish to pass for one for about 15 seconds. Then my vocabulary runs out. But apparently my accent is convincing. I once met a Turk at the cashier at a Cape Cod supermarket. He was speaking in English with some other guys from around the Middle East. I spoke my few words if Turkish to him, and he asked me where I was from. I said right here, USA. He said, oh sure you are. I think youre another Turk who speaks really good English. It took me another minute to convince him I wasnt.
sinkingfeeling
(57,357 posts)Grins
(9,288 posts)Trump, the fuckin' cut-rate Corleone. Only without the Don's charm and finesse.
Evolve Dammit
(21,543 posts)maliaSmith
(154 posts)I don't drink, however, California and other wine making states make great champagne and it's reasonably priced. Expensive French champagne is mostly drunk by rich people, the kind that support Trump. No big loss.