What Trump’s Comments About France Say About Him

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You might imagine that, given the imminent midterm elections, a spluttering war in Iran, and his sinking personal approval , Donald Trump has enough to worry about.

Not so.

The president has been posting prolifically on Truth Social over the past two days about protests in France.

“The migrants have taken over France.

They must CLOSE THE BORDERS, FAST!” he wrote this morning .

Trump’s reactions don’t tell us a great deal about the protests or about French society, but they do reveal three things about Trump.

First, Trump’s favorite mode is punditry.

Even as the world’s most powerful man, he frequently seems to prefer watching TV and shooting opinions from the hip to engaging in governance.

This explains why he continued to give freewheeling briefings, full of his own speculation and medical advice, while the coronavirus swept the United States in 2020, and it might be one reason he’s fixated on France at a time of political peril for his own party.

Second, and related, Trump can’t resist meddling in other countries’ affairs, engaging in behavior that previous presidents would have concluded was inappropriate.

The U.S. government has long worked to covertly influence foreign elections, and in some cases encouraged or fomented coups.

But presidents have mostly avoided issuing public endorsements or other interventions in partisan politics overseas, two things Trump loves to do.