At The Spectator, Gavin Mortimer makes the case that the European Union has always been a bully, and that successive French president have wielded their power to bully (or attempt to bully) other nations into submission.

Mortimer’s first target is Nicolas Sarkozy, who bullied the Irish into revoting for the EU treaty in 2008. Mortimer writes:

It’s a role that Macron has himself played in the past, as well as some of his predecessors in the Elysee Palace. In 2008, for example, Ireland voted against the EU treaty, which was designed to overhaul the bloc’s institutions. The then-president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, declared that “the Irish will have to vote again.”

As the Guardian remarked at the time: “What part of Ireland’s ‘no’ does the EU not understand?” So the Irish were forced to vote again and fortunately – for the EU, at least – they voted the correct way second time around.

Mortimer next takes aim at the current president of France, Emmanuel Macron, whom Mortimer reports was called a “positive nuisance” by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the Brexit negotiations.

Mortimer concludes that Trump can see the EU for what it is, a blustering, weak bully. He writes:

Brussels is a classic bully in that it pushes around the weak but runs from the strong. It will threaten African countries – such as Uganda and Nigeria – on LGBTQ rights, as it will Hungary and Poland, but it says nothing on the same subject to rich Arab States or North African countries it sees as necessary partners.

Macron may be struggling with his sight at the moment, but Trump isn’t. He sees the EU for what it is: a weak, blustering bully which has finally met its match.

Read more here.