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It’s not day-after-day you’ll read the names Emmanuel Macron and Tom Cruise in the identical sentence.
However the pair have drawn comparisons today after France’s president rocked as much as the World Economic Forum in Switzerland wearing a pair of Top Gun-style aviator sunglasses.
He first wore the sunglasses – believed to be by the French brand Louis Vuitton – last week when inspecting members of France’s armed forces.
‘Please pardon the unsightly appearance of my eye. It’s, in fact, something completely harmless,’ he said.
‘Simply see an unintentional reference to the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ … For individuals who catch the reference, it is an indication of determination,’ he joked.
For individuals who didn’t catch the reference, that’s the theme song to the 1982 movie Rocky III, starring Sylvester Stallone.
Why was Macron wearing sunglasses?
During his visit to the military base last week, Macron’s eye seemed to be bloodshot and puffy.
It’s unclear what exactly the difficulty is, along with his office stating that he has an eye fixed condition.
Presumably it didn’t clear up over the weekend, which is why France’s leader decided to rock up as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell during Davos.
He likely made a calculation that looking like a washed-up rock star on the flashy event was preferable to looking like a bungling street fighter.
The trendy accessory – paired along with his small quiff and sideburns – lent an unintended air of cool to his dire warning that we’re seeing ‘a shift towards a world without rules’.
But despite the marginally silly look, there was little question how serious he was a few future where ‘international law is trampled underfoot, and where the one law that seems to matter is that of the strongest’.
Though he didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, Macron attacked ‘imperial ambitions’ that he said were resurfacing and told attendees he prefers ‘respect to bullies’.
Referencing the US President’s recent threats over Greenland, he condemned ‘an limitless accumulation of latest tariffs which are fundamentally unacceptable – much more so once they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty’.
Earlier today, Trump shared private messages from Macron along with his Truth Social followers.
In them, the French President tells his ‘friend’ they’re ‘totally in line on Syria’ and so they ‘can do great things on Iran’, but adds: ‘I don’t understand what you might be doing on Greenland.’
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