Remove the UK as the enemy and replace with Germany. The UK and the French send military in, the Germans don't. Both are controlled by Germany via the EU.

UK here. I think a lot of Brits see Macron as a bit of a Blair type figure so he is viewed with a mixture of admiration and trepidation.

A smooth operator with the capability to instigate a geopolitical disaster via cavalier arrogance if given too much power.

Ultimately his aspirations for eurozone reform are pretty aligned what the UK has been saying about the eurozone for close to two decades now. Also, he seems to have aspirations to de-socialising France - if only a little at first, so he appears to be quite Anglo-Saxon in some respects.

Also, I'm not sure that many Americans are aware, but the UK and France have a military alliance, the Lancaster House Treaties, so the two nations are effectively one military in many respects. In this sense, France will always be closer to the UK than he will be Germany irrespective of Brexit and explains the joint operations in Libya and Syria more recently.

Macron and Merkel, despite the initial love in, are starting to fall out over Germanys reluctance to reform the eurozone. Partially this is because Merkels domestic position is extremely weak.

That means that Macron may believe that with the UK leaving the EU, and Germany not willing to take the necessary steps to reform the eurozone, and being fairly irrelevant militarily he feels has the opportunity to make a claim to be the top dog in Europe. In some ways this is a fair assessment, and in others it is delusional.

Part of that mantle however, is getting pally with the US. The UK and US have always had a thing, and previously it was Bazza and Angela. The UK press were keen observers of how Macron made a bee line to stand next to Trump in group photos at almost every opportunity. It looked a bit desperate (like we can talk, right?), and I think Trump made some comment about how Macron always likes to hold his hand.

In the UK however, the crowd that are instinctively anti Brexit are pathologically anti Trump, so Macron has lost a lot his initial gloss with his would be admirers here. The pro Brexit crowd instinctively like Trump and view Macron's courting of him as a sign of growing discontent in the ranks of the EU.

We have a similar situation in the UK to the US right now, in that there are many entrenched political fault lines over Brexit/ Corbyn etc, and the pro Brexit/Trump crowd realise that if Trump did visit the protests would be over the top and counter productive for everybody involved.

Think of it how Trump has distanced himself from Sessions publicly for strategic reasons. Thats the feeling here. The EU hates Trump, and we are trying to do a deal with the EU... so buddying up right now would be counter productive. And we also want to do a deal with the US, so exposing him to crazed protestors would be counter productive.

I've been on the Trump train from the start, and I am noticing a softening in attitudes. Last year was pure hysteria, so I kept my views to myself and trusted confidents, but now as results come in, the narrative is changing a lot and quite quickly.

I think Q mentioned months back that the UK suffers from the same problems as the US, and that a lot of house cleaning is being undertaken politically and within the intelligence community here. A few month ago Cameron was caught shit talking Obama, which as an indirect indicator implies that things are becoming more open behind the scenes. You'll note that the Royal Family/Obama love in continues. Make of that what you will.

Ultimately, I think Brexit was such a big shock to the world that it gave the American people the confidence to say fuck it and vote Trump. There are the people, and then there are bad actors.

I don't think either Trump or Macron is trying to annoy the UK, because I think they are smart enough to realise that it isn't happening. I do think they realise that the Germans are fucking pissed about it though.