Secret communications between heads of state are the invisible pillars that uphold the international order. Even when they trade harsh public criticism, they have quietly exchanged private messages beneath the surface to find compromises and avert catastrophe.
On the 20th (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump broke a long-standing diplomatic taboo. Trump posted screenshots on his social media of private cell phone text messages he exchanged with European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, exactly as they were.
Around 3 p.m. Eastern time that day, President Trump uploaded a series of text message screenshots to Truth Social, the social networking service he runs. Experts said they believe the messages were exchanged via Signal Messenger, launched in 2014 by the U.S. nonprofit Signal Foundation.
In the texts, President Macron opened the conversation by calling President Trump "my friend," signaling familiarity. But the content was sharp. Macron began, "I want to talk about transatlantic communications and about Greenland, Gaza, Ukraine, and your tariff announcement."
Macron's messages grew increasingly direct. He wrote, "I cannot understand what you are trying to do in Greenland." He directly criticized Trump's plan to purchase Greenland.
Even so, Macron did not forget a conciliatory gesture. He invited Trump to a dinner and proposed holding an expanded G7 meeting that included Russia in Paris right after the Davos forum. Experts said this passage clearly revealed Macron's diplomatic gambit to exploit Trump's fear of international isolation and draw him to the negotiating table.
But Trump humiliated Macron by laying bare the private conversation to the public. Just before releasing the texts, he threatened to impose tariffs of up to 200% on French wine and champagne. It came right after France said it would not join the peace committee he is leading.
Meeting with reporters that day, Trump sent a mocking warning, saying, "President Macron is nearing the end of his term," and "I don't care whether he joins the committee or not, but once the 200% tariff is applied, he will eventually come around." Trump also released, in turn, the contents of conversations he had with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, in addition to Macron.
It is difficult to find a case in diplomatic history where private communications between leaders were exposed to the public so bluntly. Private channels are the last bastion where leaders can frankly seek concessions and compromises without worrying about domestic politics. During the Cold War, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev built trust by exchanging confidential letters even amid a hair-trigger nuclear crisis.
Experts said Trump dismantled this safety valve that the diplomatic community had tacitly accepted. The fear that conversations between leaders could be made public at any time shakes the very foundation of international diplomacy: trust. A leader whose face is lost because private communications were disclosed is likely to harbor hostility.
Some predicted that, fearing every word will be cut to fit domestic politics, leaders will issue only hard-line and formulaic official statements. In that case, the space for compromise disappears and working-level diplomacy inevitably stalls. That could be a serious headwind for the current international landscape, which is packed with agenda items spanning Greenland, Iran, and Venezuela.
The political news outlet Politico said, "Trump's act of sharing screenshots of text messages with fellow leaders offered an unprecedented view into how leaders around the world try to coax him."