Por Renan Filho · 2026-10-28**Lead**
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday revived a pointed warning he issued to French President Emmanuel Macron a decade ago, telling a crowd in South Carolina that Macron must adopt an aggressive posture toward the protesters sweeping across France. "You have to get them out," Trump said, referencing the ongoing civil unrest that has paralyzed parts of Paris and other major cities. The remark, delivered during a campaign-style rally, drew immediate comparisons to Trump's previous advice to Macron in 2018, when the "Yellow Vest" movement first erupted over fuel taxes and economic inequality.
**Context**
The relationship between Trump and Macron has long been characterized by public friction and occasional flashes of camaraderie. Their first formal meeting at a NATO summit in 2017 set the tone: a bone-crushing handshake, followed by weeks of diplomatic tension over trade tariffs and the Iran nuclear deal. But it was in 2018, as the Yellow Vest protests engulfed French boulevards, that Trump offered his most controversial counsel. "Macron has been saying, 'I have to be nice, I have to bring them in, I have to get them to agree,'" Trump said at the time. "I said, 'You have to get them out. You have to get them out of the streets.'"
Now, nearly eight years later, France faces a fresh wave of unrest. The current protests, which began in early October, were initially triggered by proposed cuts to public sector pensions and accelerated by rising food and energy prices. However, they have since mutated into a broader backlash against Macron's immigration policies and his handling of social services in rural and peri-urban areas. Video footage from Lyon and Marseille shows clashes between demonstrators and riot police, with tear gas canisters and makeshift barricades dominating the nightly news cycles. The French Interior Ministry has confirmed that multiple officers have been injured, but has declined to provide specific figures, citing an ongoing security review.
Trump's renewed remarks come as Macron attempts a delicate balancing act. On one hand, he has ordered a reinforced police presence across major transit hubs, a move his critics label as heavy-handed. On the other, he has dispatched senior ministers to negotiate with union leaders, a gesture reminiscent of the town-hall approach he adopted during the Yellow Vest crisis. Macron's office has not publicly responded to Trump's latest comments, though a French government spokesperson dismissed the intervention as "noise from abroad" in an interview with a European broadcaster.
**Analise**
The significance of Trump's statement extends beyond mere commentary on a foreign ally's domestic troubles. It reflects a deeper ideological fracture within Western leadership regarding the legitimacy of protest and the use of state force. Trump's framing—that protesters must be physically removed rather than politically accommodated—echoes the law-and-order platform that has defined his political brand since 2015. For Macron, who has consistently positioned himself as the centrist bulwark against populism, Trump's advice is a poison chalice: to ignore it risks appearing weak to nationalist constituencies in France, while to embrace it would validate the exact politics Macron has spent his presidency opposing.
This episode also illustrates the unusual dynamic of American former presidents commenting on active foreign crises. Historically, ex-presidents have generally refrained from directly advising foreign leaders during moments of civil instability, preferring to defer to the sitting administration. Trump's willingness to break that norm, and to frame the protests as a test of Macron's authority, signals his continued influence over international conservative media narratives. French political analysts have noted that Trump's words are being amplified by right-wing outlets in both the United States and France, potentially inflaming the situation rather than cooling it.
Looking forward, the question is whether Macron will alter his strategy in response to external pressure. His government has so far resisted declaring a state of emergency, which would grant police expanded powers to detain suspects without trial. However, with the protests showing no sign of abating—and with a parliamentary vote on the pension reform scheduled for December—Macron may soon face a moment of truth. The international community, including the Biden administration, has remained notably silent on the matter, leaving Trump as the loudest American voice on the crisis.
**Fontes**
This article is based on public statements made by former President Donald Trump at a rally in South Carolina, as covered by major American wire services and broadcast networks. Additional context was drawn from contemporaneous reporting by international news organizations on the 2018 Yellow Vest protests and from official communications released by the French Interior Ministry regarding the current demonstrations. No interviews were conducted, and no proprietary data was used.