'Really is unhinged': Trump stuns by breaking 'protocol' in effort to shame world leaders
President Donald Trump went on an overnight online posting spree early Tuesday, sharing private text messages with European leaders — and in doing so sparked a wave of outrage from critics who compared his behavior to that of a teen in the “middle of his first high school drama.”
Trump shared screenshots of private text exchanges with two European leaders: French President Emmanuel Macron, who appeared perplexed by Trump’s fixation on acquiring Greenland, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who seemed to express support for the idea.
The unorthodox behavior for a sitting U.S. president didn’t go unnoticed by critics, including X user “War Monitors,” who provides news and commentary on world events and has amassed more than 1.2 million followers.
“The ‘president’ is sharing private messages with world leaders online as if he’s in [the] middle of his first high school drama,” they wrote in a social media post on X Tuesday.
Another critic, Areih Kovler, a writer and political analyst, expressed confusion as to Trump’s intent behind sharing the messages, particularly his private text exchange with Macron.
“There's nothing embarrassing in this message for Macron. No gotcha. No obvious tactical reason to break diplomatic protocol by releasing it,” Kovler wrote to their more than 80,000 followers in a social media post on X. “It makes every world leader reluctant to put anything in writing. Just another sign Trump is losing it.”
Trump has increased his efforts for the United States to acquire Greenland — a territory of Denmark — arguing that doing so was necessary for America’s “national security.” He ramped up those efforts on Saturday after announcing a new 10% tariff on eight European nations, slated to increase to 25% in June and remain until Greenland is acquired by the United States.
“Wow. Trump really is unhinged… sharing this is a slap in the face to France,” wrote Alonso Gurmendi, writer and fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in a social media post on X to their more than 144,000 followers. “But I do enjoy seeing how Macron repeatedly writes ‘great’ to try to ‘speak Trumply.’ They treat him like a moron.”