Trump heads to France as world leaders seek to curry favor

President-elect Trump is holding court with foreign leaders as they seek to gain influence and insight into his mindset before he takes office, with the expectation that the Trump administration will bring major shifts to the global economy and to its approach to alliances.

Trump has met with and spoken to a wide array of global leaders since he won last month’s election. On Saturday, he will be taking a trip abroad to attend the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, a visit that is seen as a way for French President Emmanuel Macron to bolster his standing with the president-elect. 

Trump is set to join other prominent officials, including first lady Jill Biden, at a ceremony to mark the reopening of the cathedral, which went up in flames in 2019, putting the historic building in jeopardy.

The former and incoming president has spent the weeks since his victory taking calls from foreign leaders, many of whom have congratulated him on his win, with Macron being among the first to do so.

“Foreign leaders are coming to the table to meet with President Trump because they know he will restore peace through strength and reclaim America’s dominance on the world stage," Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson for the transition, said in a statement. 

At least one leader, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, flew to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida last week in the wake of Trump threatening tariffs against Canada.

It marked just one example of how world leaders are bracing for a significant shift from the U.S. upon the transition from the Biden administration to the Trump administration. 

“The playbook is pretty darn clear. Flattery, offering up deliverables and shiny objects on a silver platter,” said Brett Bruen, president of the Global Situation Room and a former U.S. diplomat. “What you saw from Macron was this kind of tactic to be able to get the snowball rolling in the right direction with Trump, and clearly it’s been well received.” 

“At the end of the day, other world leaders would be well advised to follow that model because there are only two paths with Trump, and it’s either you are a friend and a flatterer or you’re in a firing line,” Bruen added.

While President Biden centered his foreign policy on restoring America’s role as a world leader and bolstering alliances, particularly in support of Ukraine, Trump has signaled he will return to his “America First” agenda that will likely be more combative with traditional allies and with groups like NATO and the United Nations. 

He has also made clear he is prepared to impose tariffs on foreign imports, including those from major trade partners like Mexico, Canada and Europe.

Trump and Macron had a hot-and-cold relationship during Trump’s first term. Trump’s first state dinner at the White House was to celebrate Macron, but Trump went on to threaten tariffs on French imports and frustrated Macron with his approach to foreign policy.

Macron’s outreach is illustrative of how other world leaders are seeking to speak with Trump before he takes office in anticipation of potentially seismic shifts in U.S. trade policy and foreign policy.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Trump, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with the president-elect shortly after Election Day.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo spoke on the phone with Trump after the president-elect threatened steep tariffs on Mexico if it did not crack down on immigration and the flow of illegal drugs at the southern border.

When Trump made a similar threat against Canada, Trudeau traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump face-to-face.

Those who know Trump suggested his threats of tariffs against Mexico and Canada may just have been a negotiating tactic, but they were enough to get the attention of his counterparts in each country.

“It's pushing those leaders to make a change, to do something,” Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday on her SiriusXM show. “When he threatens it on the economy, he's actually going to do it. So I think that this was trying to get Canada and Mexico to move. I think that this certainly got them to do that.”

The extensive contact between Trump and foreign leaders is not unusual, something even the Biden administration has acknowledged.

“Is it appropriate for foreign leaders to speak to an incoming president-elect? Yeah, of course it is,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters this week as President Biden traveled to Angola.

This weekend will also mark a rare foray into public view for Trump, who has largely remained cloistered away at Mar-a-Lago in Florida since winning a second term roughly one month ago.

Trump traveled last month to Washington, D.C., to meet with Republican lawmakers and to visit President Biden at the White House. He also spent a day in Texas attending a SpaceX launch alongside GOP allies and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

But he has otherwise been mostly out of public view, an unusual move for Trump. That is set to change with his visit to France and with a sit-down interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The interview will air on Sunday morning, roughly 24 hours after his trip to Paris.