Back in 2004, President George W. Bush was re-elected and started getting the routine congratulatory phone calls.  I'm sure he spoke with a lot of leaders, but he did not take a call from Spanish prime minister Rodriguez-Zapatero, because of what Zapatero had done in Iraq.  Good for W.

It took me a while to believe this next story.  How does the re-elected president of France not take a congratulatory phone call from the president of the U.S.?  It can't be true.  It must be one of those too-good-to-check stories that pop up on the internet.  Unfortunately, it is true, according to the New York Post:

President Biden said Monday that French President Emmanuel Macron didn't come to the phone when he called to congratulate him on his landslide reelection.

Biden said he spoke with Macron's staff instead on Sunday night as the French president partied at the Eiffel Tower — requiring the US president to call back Monday.

"I feel good about the French election," Biden said as he returned to DC from a weekend trip home to Delaware. 

"I tried to talk to him last night. I spoke to his staff and he was at the Eiffel Tower having a good time. And I'm going to be talking to him today."

Okay, so they spoke the next day.  I think they finally spoke after Biden called the NHL commissioner "Gary Batman."  It's amazing what can happen when this president gets off script.

Of course, this is not the first time that a world leader did not take President Biden's call.  You may remember that Saudi and Emirati leaders declined calls not long ago.

Something is going on here with important allies "too busy" to talk to our president.  We understand that Mr. Macron was in the middle of a big party, but that's a bad excuse for not taking a phone call from the leader of the free world.  I don't care who you are, but you always tell your staff to put the call through if the Oval Office calls.

We often talk about President Biden and how his public appearances may affect world leaders, friend and foe.  I think President Macron is sending a message here that our president is not relevant or does not add prestige to his brand.

Sad, but what else do you conclude?  Again, we are talking about refusing a call from the president of the U.S.

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Image: National Archives.