They don't know or care what's really happening in the US any more than Americans really know or care what's happening here. But if you interviewed protesters/rioters, you find one idea in common: They don't want to be "Americanized." They fear this is Macron's goal.
"America" to them is a place where the poor are left to die and the rich get richer and richer and sooner or later it becomes so barbaric that people elect someone like Trump. It's a fantasy-America just like Trump's fantasy-France, but that's what people fantasize.
This view is common especially on the far-right and far-left (which are basically the same: just add "nationalist" to "socialist" and Bob's your uncle.) It's pretty common among anyone who's never visited or spent time in the US. There are people among the Gilets Jaunes today--
who say they're not far-right but have shown up with all the far-right paraphernalia and are chanting in unison. Meanwhile, in Paris and 175 other cities, people are marching "for the climate." lemonde.fr/climat/article…
Check the #MarchePourLeClimat hashtag to see what they'd like people who understand English to understand about them. NB: They're chanting "We are all Gilets Jaunes." How precisely this will all be reconciled is a problem for someone else to solve.
