On Sunday, Emmanuel Macron was urging his fellow Europeans to use a ‘bazooka’ against Donald Trump in response to his tariff threat. Within 24 hours the President of France was alone in the trenches with his bazooka as Keir Starmer, Giorgia Meloni and Friedrich Merz all opted for jaw jaw and not war war.

According to the book, Macron has formed a ‘masculinist circle made up of men he gets on with. It’s not homosexual, but guys who enjoy each other’s company and drink red wine together’

Macron’s macho response to Trump’s tariffs was in keeping with the portrait of the president of France detailed in a new book. Nero at the Élysée is a damning account of a young man who came to office in 2017 with so much hope but who will leave as the most hated president of the Fifth Republic. The book is written by two respected journalists, both of whom believed that Macron was the man to reinvigorate France in 2017. Nearly a decade later they are as disenchanted with the rest of the country with a president who, in their words, has ‘plunged the country into a nosedive’.

No one doubts that Macron is a highly intelligent man but he was a political novice when he was elected to office, and he made the mistake of surrounding himself not with wise and experienced advisors but with weak yes-men of his own generation.

And they are all men. According to the book, Macron has formed a ‘masculinist circle made up of men he gets on with. It’s not homosexual, but guys who enjoy each other’s company and drink red wine together’.

Women have featured in Macron’s various governments but they been rather token appointments, such as Elisabeth Borne, who served as PM between 2022 and 2024, the only female among his seven premiers. Macron’s five home secretaries have been men, as have his four finance ministers and just one of his four foreign affairs ministers was a woman, for a brief 18 month period.

Installed in the Élysée Palace, Macron sought to cultivate a machismo air, in marked contrast to his hapless predecessor, Francois Hollande, who was nicknamed ‘Flamby’ on account of his resemblance to a popular wobbly blancmange.

From the outset Macron displayed a penchant for dressing up in military uniform when he visited his armed forces. Once he appeared as a Gallic ‘Top Gun’ during a tour of an air base and on another occasion he did a turn as a submarine commander.

The French rolled their eyes but they tolerated the fancy dress whims of their president in the early days; they still had faith that he was the right man to fix their country.

That faith has evaporated. Macron’s approval rating is down to 12 per cent and the vast majority have long since tired of his machismo. This is the president who talks tough against Putin and Trump, but is terrified of upsetting the Algerian government. The French agree with the Chinese regime’s nickname for their president: Macaroon – hard on the outside but soft in the centre.

No one appears to enjoy mocking the preposterousness of Macron more than Donald Trump. On Tuesday the American president released the contents of a private text message he had recently received from Macron about Greenland; then he threatened to hit France with a 200 per cent tariff on wines and champagne if Macron doesn’t join his Board of Peace.

Bullying? Yes, but Trump is also calling Macron’s tough guy bluff. In the past Trump has poked fun at Macron’s English accent and last year he humiliated him during the Gaza peace conference in Egypt. As world leaders smirked on stage, Trump wondered aloud why Macron was sitting in the audience keeping a ‘low-key’ profile. Everyone knew the answer: the political chaos in France, the collapse of another Macron government, all the result of his reckless decision to call a snap election in the summer of 2024.

The day after Macron dissolved parliament and sent the French to the polls, he was heard to boast to an  acquaintance: ‘I’ve pulled the pin and lobbed my grenade right in the middle of them. Now let’s see how they cope.’ France hasn’t coped well. Now he is urging Europe to fire a bazooka at Donald Trump. Macron the macho never learns.