Are Macron and Merkel playing good cop, bad cop with Trump?

For France and Germany, the contrast could scarcely be starker. For three days Emmanuel Macron was wooed and fêted by Donald Trump, treated to marching bands and banquets. Today, Angela Merkel made a brief two-and-a-half hour stop-off at the White House, then flew away again. So does this mean President Macron is Trump’s New Best Friend and Chancellor Merkel is just his sideman (or should that be sidewoman?)? As always, in international diplomacy, this is a question to which the answer is: well, yes and no.

Sure, the dramatic difference between these tête-à-têtes was no coincidence. Yes, Macron’s was a full state visit, Merkel’s was merely a working meeting, but the disparity is deeply symbolic, and the timing makes it even more so. Trump adores Macron, Trump dislikes Merkel – right or wrong, that’ll be the way it plays on TV, on both sides of the Atlantic. Merkel doesn’t set much store by ceremony, but she’s only human.