In March, erudite tipplers and resistance-coded wine moms (aka Jezebel readers) experienced a collective scare when Trump threatened a 200% tariff on European wine and alcohol. It was a pathetic tactic in an E.U.-U.S. trade war that Trump singlehandedly started and would have immediately tripled the price of imported treasures like Merlot and Champagne. The dumb tariff never came to pass, and everyone was allowed one brief momentary sigh of relief. But unfortunately, we’ve been catapulted back into March 2025, all because Trump had another dumb idea, and French President Emmanuel Macron is refusing to go along with it.
Currently, Macron and Trump are meeting with other world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Trump has been trying to bully select leaders into joining his “Board of Peace,” a clown show—and transparent ploy to replace the United Nations—tasked with overseeing the administration’s 20-point “peace” plan in Gaza. (Trump wagered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in October, but Gaza’s death toll continues to rise.) So far, the board’s executive leaders include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Jared Kushner. Trump’s also invited Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. As of Monday, Macron confirmed he said no way.
In a statement to Politico, Macron declined to join because the board’s charter “goes beyond the framework of Gaza and raises serious questions, in particular with respect to the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot be called into question.”
Trump responded to the snub as he does all snubs—with threats. “I’ll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and Champagnes, and he’ll join,” he told reporters on Monday. “But he doesn’t have to join.” On Tuesday, the French agriculture minister called the comments “blackmail,” adding, “It’s shocking because it’s brutal, it’s done to force compliance.” Another official close to Macron told Politico: “As we have always emphasized, tariff threats to influence our foreign policy are unacceptable and ineffective.”
The White House officially announced Trump’s Peace Board—formally titled the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza—on Friday. Though Trump posted about it on Truth Social a day earlier, writing it was “the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place.” This comes weeks after he signed the U.S. out of the world’s oldest climate treaty, and days after he was gifted the Nobel Peace Prize he never won. (He’s seemingly going after Greenland because he’s pissed Norway didn’t give him the Nobel.) The Washington Post reported that countries will have to pay $1 billion to secure a permanent seat.
Per Bloomberg, Trump wants to finalize the peace board by Thursday. The leaders of MAGA-friendly countries like Javier Milei of Argentina and Viktor Orban of Hungary have accepted spots, as well as Vietnam and Kazakhstan. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said they’ll join, but won’t pay. It seems like Germany is going to join France in saying no, and Poland is on the fence since Putin’s been invited.
Speaking at the forum on Tuesday, Macron floated using Europe’s “anti-coercion instrument” against the U.S. should it become necessary. “We do believe that we need more growth, we need more stability in this world, but we do prefer respect to bullies,” he explained. I imagine Greenland feels the same!
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