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Even Biden caught off guard by his administration's foreign policy crises
CNN
When French officials erupted in anger last week after being left out of a US-led security pact with Australia and the UK, much of Washington was caught off guard -- including President Joe Biden, according to people familiar with his reaction.
Biden had met with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the G7 summit in June but had made no mention of the pending deal to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. Even though he knew the deal would likely deprive France of its own contracts worth tens of billions of dollars, officials say Biden was still unprepared for the fury that erupted in Paris.
After days of angry phone calls and public statements from the French, Macron took the extraordinary step of recalling the French ambassador to the US for the first time in modern history. Biden was receiving regular briefings on the fallout by national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and by Sunday the President told his advisers he wanted to speak with Macron, believing a direct conversation could help smooth things over.
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.