Brigitte Macron is in the headlines after Candace Owens accused the French First Lady of being a man, and the Macrons filed a 22-count defamation lawsuit in response. Might be true, might not. But there's a far more interesting story here: her husband's rise to power.
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The term "Manchurian Candidate" conjures images of spy thrillers, of men who are brainwashed and programmed to act against their own nations. It's Hollywood fantasy. Or is it? Because when you examine Emmanuel Macron, his sudden, improbable ascent from obscurity to the Élysée Palace starts to feel less fictional.
No sci-fi brainwashing. No flashing lights or hypnotic spirals. Just careful grooming. Silent backers. Loyalties shaped long before the public ever knew his name. A mediocre man who gets slapped around by his domineering wife is now one of the most powerful people in the world.
Germany may be Europe's economic engine, but France has always been its crown jewel: the political, military, and cultural heart of the continent. Control France, and you control not just markets, but minds, traditions, and the future of Europe itself.
Which makes the rise of Macron all the more disturbing. How, one wonders, did a provincial banker, virtually unknown to the French public a decade ago, climb so quickly to the highest office in the land? The truth is, he didn't climb. He was carried.
Macron's Rothschild years reveal a man propelled by connections, not competence. Early colleagues recall that he didn't even know what EBITDA — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization — meant. A fundamental term in corporate finance.
It's the equivalent of a mechanic not knowing what an ignition is. Yet Macron rose from basic spreadsheet tasks to partner in record time, thanks to elite backers and well-timed advantages, not technical mastery. From relatively obscure banker to the highest circles of European politics.
The rise was too fast, too clean, and far too suspect. Enter Jacques Attali. His name may not mean much to some readers, but this is someone who has influenced France's political class for decades. Now 81, he served as special adviser to President François Mitterrand.
Attali played a key role in mentoring François Hollande. Even now, he ranks among the most formidable behind-the-scenes operators in French politics. In the American context, his reach would put him in the company of Zbigniew Brzezinski and George Soros. Part strategist, part gatekeeper, part financier.
Attali once boasted that he "discovered" Macron, even claiming he "invented him." The Macron we see today — the carefully packaged politician, the unapologetic globalist, the made-for-television president — wasn't born. He was built. And he was built at remarkable speed.
At age 32, Macron's selection into the French-American Foundation's program placed him among future operatives aligned with U.S.-EU integrationist interests. The Foundation has long served as a quiet grooming ground for transatlantic elites.
Past participants in the French-American Foundation's Young Leaders program include figures like Bill and Hillary Clinton. Macron passed through other elite grooming institutions: Sciences Po and the École nationale d'administration (ENA).
Sciences Po, often referred to as the training ground for France's ruling class, has produced generations of presidents, prime ministers, and top civil servants. The ENA is even more exclusive. Founded after World War II, it was designed to produce the officials who would rebuild modern France.
ENA alumni include Hollande, Jacques Chirac, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and Mr. Macron. But then came Bilderberg, the real proving ground. Within months of attending in 2014, Macron's political career took off.
For the uninitiated, Bilderberg is a private, invitation-only gathering where the world's most powerful bankers, CEOs, generals, and politicians meet behind closed doors. Off the record, out of sight, and far from accountability.
It is where future leaders are sized up, tested, and quietly approved. At the 2014 meeting, Macron was placed directly before the men and women who would soon bankroll and promote his ascent. This wasn't a coincidence. It was, I suggest, a coronation.
In 2016, after becoming a World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leader, Macron reached another "miraculous" milestone. He joined a carefully selected group approved by Klaus Schwab that included the likes of Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern.
This was yet another clear signal, a public endorsement from the same global interests that had backed him from the start. Less than twelve months later, Macron stormed to the French presidency. Stunning achievement for a man with no real political base, no electoral track record.
His main rivals were systematically crippled by scandals, exposed and prosecuted with an efficiency rarely seen in a country where the legal machinery usually crawls. Meanwhile, a political vehicle — En Marche! — was assembled almost overnight.
Backed by deep-pocketed donors and coordinated by consultants and firms closely tied to France's corporate and financial elite. Macron didn't create a movement. A movement was created around him. There is nothing normal about Emmanuel Macron's rise.
Under his leadership, France has been pushed deeper into corporate control, subordinated to supranational institutions, and subjected to sweeping social experiments, often in open defiance of the will of the French people. He has governed not as a servant of the nation, but as an agent.
National industries have been stripped. Traditional institutions have been weakened. Public anger has hardened into revolt, visible everywhere from the Yellow Vests to the farmer protests that periodically paralyze parts of the country.
He has waged war on free speech and presided over mass immigration policies that have transformed the demographics of major cities. Expansion of digital surveillance that now rivals anything seen in authoritarian states. Vaccine mandates with open contempt for dissenters.
He boasted that his government would make life "miserable" for the unvaccinated. At the same time, Macron has cultivated a carefully managed image of centrist respectability. English-language media has showered him with endless praise, even as approval ratings have plummeted.
The modern political asset doesn't need reprogramming. He only needs ambition, vanity, and the right people whispering promises of power and protection in his ear.
Who would want a man like Macron at the helm? Those who needed a willing figurehead to manage, reframe, and ultimately dissolve France's sovereignty into a broader, borderless project — a France no longer for the French, but for the architects of the global agenda.
This thread was written for Wide Awake Media by no-nonsense researcher and writer, John Mac Ghlionn.
John has written for a number of publications, including Blaze Media, The NY Post and The Hill.
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