{"id":296452,"date":"2026-01-21T21:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/296452\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T21:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:25:09","slug":"social-media-memes-soar-after-emmanuel-macrons-top-gun-look-at-davos-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/296452\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media memes soar after Emmanuel Macron\u2019s Top Gun look at Davos \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emmanuel Macron\u2019s<\/a> aviator sunglasses have caught the eye, with \u200bsocial media users debating his choice of a \u201cTop Gun\u201d look as he criticised Donald Trump<\/a> over Greenland<\/a> during his \u200dspeech in Davos. <\/p>\n

Speaking to global leaders at the annual World Economic Forum<\/a> in Davos<\/a>, Switzerland, on Tuesday, \u200dthe French president wore the dark, reflective sunglasses which French eyewear brand Henry Jullien gave him in 2024.<\/p>\n

Mr Macron\u2019s office said the choice to wear sunglasses during his speech, which took place indoors, was to protect \u200chis eyes because of a burst blood vessel. <\/p>\n

Memes, comments and speculation over \u2060Mr Macron\u2019s appearance surged on social media after his speech, with some supporters praising his look \u200cand \u200bopponents \u200ddismissing it as bombastic or speculating about his health.<\/p>\n

One meme, with the headline \u201cDuel in Davos,\u201d was styled like a Top Gun parody, with Mr Macron and the US president looking at each other, both wearing military-style flight suits, and Mr Macron, looking very small \u2060next to Mr Trump, sporting oversized aviator sunglasses.<\/p>\n

\"EmmanuelEmmanuel Macron is seen here with a bloodshot right eye on Friday. Photograph: Philippe Magoni\/AP <\/p>\n

References to the 1986 movie starring Tom Cruise<\/a> were ubiquitous.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump: \u2060be careful … Macron is here,\u201d one social \u2060media user said on X, with a picture of the French president with the aviator glasses. \u201cCould he not find some more sober glasses?\u201d another user asked.<\/p>\n

Italian right-wing \u200dnewspaper Libero called Macron a \u201cgreat braggart\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even some of Macron\u2019s colleagues got in on the act, with European affairs minister Benjamin Haddad posting a version of the \u201cSoyboy vs Yes Chad\u201d meme, with Chad donning aviators and draped in a French flag.<\/p>\n

Worldwide searches for Henry Jullien glasses also surged, peaking around 7am on Wednesday, according to Google Trends. A spokesperson for the brand said the company was receiving an unusually high numbers of calls. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0US tactics on Greenland \u2018tearing apart\u2019 existing trade deal, Minister claims<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The French \u200cluxury firm, owned by \u200cItalian group iVision Tech, said the model worn by Macron was its Pacific S 01, with a price tag of \u20ac659 on its website. Shares in iVision \u200cTech were up almost 6 per cent on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

During his speech, Mr Macron described as \u201cfundamentally unacceptable\u201d Washington\u2019s threat to impose new tariffs<\/a>, including \u2060on French wine and champagne, to bend Europe\u2019s resolve and allow it to buy Greenland. <\/p>\n

Mr Macron also promised France would stand up to \u201cbullies\u201d. \u2013 Reuters <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emmanuel Macron\u2019s aviator sunglasses have caught the eye, with \u200bsocial media users debating his choice of a \u201cTop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,140613,356,6586,13,14,17768,6,11,12,15,16,5,6000,7,8,1411,65,78553,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-296452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-davos","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-emmanuel-macron","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-greenland","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-tom-cruise","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-us-tariffs","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-economic-forum","28":"tag-world-news","29":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115935204079763856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}