“Not perfect,” was Donald Trump’s reply when asked about Emmanuel Macron’s support for the Iran operation. “But it’s France, we don’t expect perfect.” The French President had initially distanced his country from the bombing campaign for, in his view, noncompliance with international law. Then Iran struck allied Gulf states and Cyprus. Macron immediately dispatched France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean (while Britain was, humiliatingly, unable even to scramble a frigate). “We are not taking part in the conflict that is under way,” Macron declared with characteristic grandiloquence from the deck of the carrier. “France is a balancing and peaceful power.”

More than with other allies, Franco-American relations cleave to the emotional

More than with other allies, Franco-American relations cleave to the emotional

The French love nothing more than tweaking the great sister-republic’s tail. Macron has met regional heads of state, even phoning the Iranian President. He has said he is defending France’s Gulf allies, while supporting Lebanon against Israeli bombardment. He talks of coordinating a defensive European naval force to liberate shipping in the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian strikes (although there is little sign of such an operation). Still, the French are reveling in this display. They have stood up to their American cousins, asserting both moral superiority and military strength. As Alexis de Tocqueville told John Stuart Mill in 1840: “National pride is our greatest remaining sentiment.” And they do it remarkably well. Macron’s poll rating is already up 6 percent. Trump has clearly found Macron irritating during his second term, at points calling him a “publicity-seeking” leader who “always gets it wrong.” During one particular spat, Trump threatened to “put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and Champagnes.” As Trump’s team talks of the continent’s civilizational decline, Macron’s calls for greater European autonomy. Neither side seems particularly impressed with the other. But then that’s always been the essence of the Franco-American relationship: revolutionary sister republics that can’t seem to get along.

Last month, a young conservative Catholic student was savagely beaten to death in Lyon by members of a far-left militant group. The group is affiliated with the Robespierriste firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a potential future president. The shock was felt well beyond France’s borders. Senior figures in the American administration saw this........

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