Emmanuel Macron’s congratulatory message to Donald Trump caused a lot of reaction on social networks. A sentence was perceived to have a double meaning.
Emmanuel Macron, who maintained rather tense relations with Donald Trump at the end of his first term, was the first head of state of a major Western power to send his congratulations to the billionaire who will once again lead the United States in January. The French president knows that the arrival at the White House of the populist businessman creates a new diplomatic and geopolitical climate in which it will be necessary to make Europe’s positions heard to anticipate the balance of power and hostility who will settle down.
The tenant of Matignon wrote this message: “Congratulations President Donald Trump. Ready to work together as we have been able to do for four years. With your convictions and with mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity “. This short statement was also written in English and has been viewed at least 5 million times, according to network X statistics. And one wording caused a lot of reaction: “With your convictions”. In English, this term is quite ambiguous; it can be translated as “convictions, opinions”, but also as “convictions” in its judicial sense.
The English-speaking comments are very numerous and dozens of Internet users have highlighted what they consider to be a mockery. “I wonder if Macron hasn’t reached the ultimate level of troll by mentioning Trump’s convictions!” laughs one user. “What a great troll”, we can read under the message from the French president. Many people respond to it with humor, others indicate that this word does not have the same meaning in both languages. But can the French president, who speaks English fluently, risk making a misstep? “He knew what he was doing,” points out an Internet user, who suspects that such a message is read and reread several times before being sent.
We do not know how Donald Trump reacted when reading this message from Emmanuel Macron. But the two men called each other for more than 20 minutes, Wednesday, November 6, to discuss the files that they will have to handle jointly. According to the Élysée, the two presidents expressed their “desire to work for the return of peace and stability” in the face of “major ongoing international crises”. The Elysée services also insisted on the fact that this interview had been “warm”.