2024 American presidential election: between France and the United States, a complex historical relationship

If the American presidential election is so closely followed in France, it is because it will have consequences for Europe but also because our two countries have a long, unique relationship, which oscillates between reason and passion, and because our two nations have been bearers of a universalist ideal for two and a half centuries.

Since the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, where France decisively supported American insurgents against the British, our two nations have forged deep bonds, oscillating between mutual admiration and strategic differences.

From Lafayette to Tocqueville

The genesis of this unique relationship dates back to the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, who embodies the first bridge between France and the United States. A young French aristocrat in love with the ideals of the Enlightenment, Lafayette fought alongside George Washington, becoming much more than a military ally: a living symbol of Franco-American friendship, still celebrated today.

A few decades later, Alexis de Tocqueville would offer the first analytical and in-depth look at American democracy. His work “On Democracy in America” remains a founding text, demonstrating that the dialogue between the two nations goes far beyond geopolitical considerations to touch on the philosophical understanding of societies.

In New York, the Statue of Liberty, offered by France in 1886, symbolizes this friendship. Finally, the two World Wars cemented an alliance that goes beyond simple diplomatic considerations: the blood shed created an almost fraternal bond, still celebrated with Joe Biden on June 6 for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

However, there was no shortage of disagreements between France and the United States. In 1966, De Gaulle left NATO's integrated command. In 2003, French opposition to the war in Iraq, led by Dominique de Villepin at the UN Security Council, deeply fractured the Franco-American relationship. “French fries” which then became “Freedom fries” in American restaurants illustrate the childishness that can sometimes affect diplomatic relations.

In 2008, Barack Obama embodied a form of intellectual continuity with Tocqueville's legacy. During his two mandates, he developed a sophisticated multilateral approach, promoting historic alliances like that with France. His speech in Strasbourg in 2009, where he explicitly celebrated Franco-American friendship, was a landmark.

The Trump era ushered in a tumultuous relationship in 2016. His repeated criticisms of the European Union, his unilateralism and his displayed contempt for traditional alliances have put Franco-American dialogue to the test.

The virile handshakes between Trump and Macron

Emmanuel Macron, who parodied his Make America Great again in Make Planet Great again when Trump left the Paris Climate Agreement, tried to maintain a constant dialogue with a strategy that he has often applied to other leaders: to seduce and convince through a mixture of personal diplomacy and firmness. We remember the endless virile handshake between the two presidents in May 2017 during a NATO summit in Brussels, then reiterated in 2018 during a G7 in Quebec.

State dinners during official visits and multiple telephone conversations punctuated the first five-year term with attempts at rapprochement. Trump was sometimes seduced – he wanted to copy our July 14 parade in Washington – but more often indifferent or even outrageous, when he treated the American soldiers buried in the Normandy military cemeteries as “losers”, and of “suckers” (dummies).

With the arrival of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2021, the diplomatic situation has changed significantly; Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also a Francophile. More open to multilateralism, more inclined to dialogue, the Democratic administration has restored a more traditional relationship with France with a shared analysis on the threats weighing on democracies or the need to support Ukraine in the face of Russia.

In Munich in 2022 as vice-president, Kamala Harris reaffirmed the importance of the transatlantic partnership which is not the priority of Donald Trump, follower of Amerca First, America first. No wonder then that, apart from the RN, the French political class leans more in favor of Harris, sometimes forgetting that, even democratic, American presidents always put the interest of the United States before the rest.