how Eric Zemmour is not Trumpian

As I continue to read up on Eric Zemmour, who has announced that he's running for president of France, I'm encountering bits of information that are interesting, pleasing, and occasionally disturbing. I thought Zemmour's speech announcing his candidacy was eloquent and literate, evocative and powerful. However, I can't say I'm happy to find out he sees himself as both a Gaullist and a Bonapartist. Neither of these stances bodes well for Franco-US relations: Gaullist foreign policy, for example, leans heavily on the concept of le contrepoids, i.e., the counterweight—to wit, France must act as a counterweight against American initiatives to preserve a perceived balance. I find this absurd in the extreme: America's enemies are counterweight enough, and allies shouldn't be thinking like enemies. Jacques Chirac was a Gaullist and believed strongly in having France act as a counterweight, which threw all sorts of monkey wrenches into transatlantic relations. I find the attitude stupid, and I can only hope that whatever Zemmour intends by "Gaullist" isn't the same as what de Gaulle himself or Jacques Chirac would have meant. (Nicolas Sarkozy was more a fan of America, but he ended up mired in a whole host of often self-created problems.)

So Zemmour's Gaullism is potentially one way in which he's not like Trump (although Gaullism contains France-first elements similar to Trump's "America First" policy). Another issue with Zemmour is his lack of experience running an economy. Trump proved more than capable on that score, although the US left will never give him credit for accomplishing as much as he did despite massive opposition from both the left and many of his fellow Republicans. What sort of economic understanding does Eric Zemmour possess? A writer and journalist can learn a lot about a variety of subjects over the course of a career (writer Gary Taubes wrote Why We Get Fat despite not being a dietitian), so it's conceivable that Zemmour has a well-thought-out economic vision. But does he have the necessary savvy to make course corrections once his plans encounter reality? He's a man of letters, not numbers. How good would he be at thinking on his feet while France is buffeted by economic winds? This, to me, is an open question; as I continue to study Zemmour, I'll focus on this issue. My greatest fear is that he's going to have an economic perspective thoroughly marinated in French thinking,* which I would predict won't do the country much good.

Zemmour is a bit of a mixed bag, it seems, but it would be wrong simply to declare him "the French Trump." He's obviously not that, although I stand by my label of nationalist-populist. I wonder whether he and Marine Le Pen will draw huge crowds once they start campaigning in earnest. Le Pen fille is much more moderate than her unhinged father, but she carries the stigma of that surname wherever she goes. That might prove to be a liability for Zemmour. But I don't claim to understand French politics; there are doubtless many things happening behind the scenes and in the minds of the French public that I have utterly failed to grasp.

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*I might unpack this sentiment later.