Earlier this year, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered some avuncular counsel to Western allies at Davos, weary of being belittled and trolled by President Donald Trump and his advisers: “Sit back, take a deep breath, do not retaliate,” he urged. “Let things play out.”
His remarks focused primarily on tariffs, but at the Swiss Alpine gabfest, Bessent and other Trump aides repeated the same advice on almost everything concerning the U.S. president. And on the whole, the leaders of Washington’s allies heeded their warning, even as they struggled to contain their outrage over Trump’s threats to invade Greenland.
For Gavin Newsom, the Trump-bashing California governor who was also at Davos, it was all too much. The world leaders in attendance were “pathetic,” he said. “I can’t take this complicity of people rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders.”
Since then, however, things have moved on — especially for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron, who have both been giving as good as they get in recent weeks. Amid rising trade tensions and differences with the White House over Russia, they haven’t hesitated to escalate when attacked, sometimes even taunting Trump without immediate provocation.
Carney and Macron have become the “leaders of the resistance,” said Rohinton Medhora, the Canadian economist and professor at McGill University who has dubbed Carney’s evolving political vision as “value-based realism.” Medhora, who sits on various international and Canadian commissions, said: “They’ve tried flattery. They’ve tried ignoring him. Nothing’s worked, and they are not losing out now with their retaliatory trolling.”
Carney may have lectured the Trump administration “to stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough,” but that hasn’t stopped him from offering public mockery of his own.
The Canadian prime minister’s freewheeling swipes have included teasing Trump for claiming “sabotage” after his teleprompter malfunctioned during an address to the United Nations last year. Experiencing a similar technical hiccup in Toronto, Carney deadpanned: “I would now like to inform you that the teleprompter has ceased to function. Unlike a certain world leader, I do not view this as a conspiracy.”
And in Ottawa, Carney drew both applause and laughter by mimicking Trump’s signature “accordion” hand gestures.
So, what’s going on? And are there any risks to poking the bear?
According to former White House strategist and current MAGA influencer and podcaster Steve Bannon, there is. “They’re playing with fire,” he told POLITICO. “They’re totally dependent on us for trade.” He also added a dark warning about “the Alberta secession movement picking up momentum” — Bannon and other MAGA luminaries have been encouraging the oil-rich Canadian province to break away.
Bannon also cited the deal Trump recently struck with Denmark and Greenland as an example of U.S. power and Washington’s ability to get what it wants. “Our Greenland deal shows the reality of Canada’s inability to defend itself from being the next Ukraine — this time in the Arctic,” he said.
But Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, draws a different lesson from the Greenland deal, which extends an earlier agreement dating from 1951 and does not give Trump control of the island, as he said he wanted. For Daalder, this deal shows that when allies stand their ground, the U.S. president backs down. “With that deal Trump literally got nothing,” he told POLITICO.
“I think what’s happening is the allies are starting to understand how to play him,” said Daalder. “Now they’re ignoring his bluster, and do and say what they think is important for their own good. By doing so, they have as good a chance as any in getting what they want.”
It’s also not surprising that Macron was quicker to taunt Trump than other Western leaders, said Daalder. “He’s French, after all.” Even during the first Trump presidency, Macron was willing to go mano a mano with the U.S. president, squeezing his counterpart’s hand in a handshake until their knuckles turned white and refusing to let go even when Trump tried to pull away.
But the French president’s tone seems sharper now, his actions even more pointed. Fort his, Daalder points to Macron’s maneuvering of Trump this June into inking an interim deal with Iran at Versailles — a palace infamous for a treaty that ended one world war but led to another. Macron, Trump’s critics trumpeted, had pulled off an epic diplomatic “troll.”
What audiences are these two leaders trying to reach and influence? “That’s a good question,” said Medhora. “It is clearly not Americans.” And there’s certainly a domestic component, as both men are scoring political points by standing up to a man they portray as a bully.
But Medhora believes there is likely a broader, more strategic, aspect to their posturing. “By doing these things very publicly, they’re encouraging other leaders to overcome their hesitation and join them,” he said. “And if others come along, then everyone is stronger in the anti-Trump camp.”
But that’ll only work if they can do it with serious consequence — and there’s always a chance that it could all backfire.
Perhaps with Trump facing a likely setback in the U.S. midterm elections, Carney and Macron would be better off taking Bessent’s advice and letting things play out, as the U.S. leader may emerge from the vote facing new constraints from emboldened Democrats. But, for now, both seem to be having far too much fun poking the bear to do that.
