Respect for the United States on the global stage appears to have been diminished under President Joe Biden, as evidenced by French President Emmanuel Macron's recent state visit to Beijing and friendly meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Such is the view of former President Donald Trump, who called out Macron for "kissing [Xi's] ass" and appearing to align France more with the communist regime in China than the U.S., the Daily Mail reported.

Macron "is over with China kissing his ass"

Former President Trump sat for an extended interview this week with Fox News host Tucker Carlson and discussed a range of topics, many of which were in relation to the current U.S. international standing as compared to when he was still in office.

One segment of the conversation was focused on the existential threat of "nuclear warming" that would arise if nuclear weapons were ever used, but it eventually segued into a discussion of the increasing lack of respect for the U.S. under President Biden from not just enemies and rivals but also friends and allies, like France.

Asked how he might de-escalate things and reverse the trend, Trump said, "Now – so, you have a problem: You've got this crazy world that's blowing up and the United States has absolutely no say and Macron, who's a friend of mine, is over with China kissing his ass. In China. I said France is now going to China?"

The former president also made mention of Saudi Arabia and Biden's infamous "fist bump" moment with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, which he asserted was an insulting display of disrespect toward Biden.

Macron slides away from U.S., toward China

Controversy erupted last week over comments made by President Macron in an interview with Politico on his return flight to France following his state visit with President Xi in China.

Of particular note were remarks made about Taiwan, an independent island nation off the coast of mainland China that the communist regime views as a rebellious breakaway province that nonetheless still belongs to it, and has often threatened to invade and reclaim full control of – a potential move that the U.S. government, which has armed Taiwan and vowed to defend, staunchly opposes.

Macron said that the greatest "risk" currently faced by Europe is that it "gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy."

"The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers," he continued. "The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction."

Macron went on to say with regard to the Taiwan situation, "Europeans cannot resolve the crisis in Ukraine; how can we credibly say on Taiwan, 'watch out, if you do something wrong we will be there'? If you really want to increase tensions that’s the way to do it."

The French president further asserted that Europe as a whole needed to reduce its dependence on U.S. weapons and security agreements and the "extraterritoriality of the U.S. dollar," meaning the U.S. dollar's status as the world's reserve currency, and said, "If the tensions between the two superpowers heat up … we won’t have the time nor the resources to finance our strategic autonomy and we will become vassals."

U.S. would be "second-tier country" if currency dominance is lost

Interestingly enough, as French President Macron referenced moving away from reliance upon the U.S. dollar, former President Trump also discussed that same issue in a segment of his interview with Carlson.

Trump warned that China was pushing hard, and enjoying success with some countries, to establish its own currency as globally dominant over the U.S. dollar, and asserted that America would be reduced to a "second-tier country" if that were to actually happen.

"If we lose our currency that is the equivalent of losing a world war. Our currency is what makes us powerful and strong," he said. "And this was unthinkable during the Trump administration."