It was in March last year, just over a month after Donald Trump returned to the White House, that the group appeared on Fabien Defrance's social media feed: "Boycott the USA - buy French and European," was its slogan.
The message resonated with Defrance, who holds a management position at a company in the financial industry.
I am affected by Trump's decisions every day. I have been against him and the MAGA movement for ten years and believe he is dangerous to the world.
Become aware
The group discusses everything from alternatives to Californian wines and American credit cards to tips for avoiding Amazon, Netflix and Google. Other members that TT has been in contact with emphasize the importance of using apps to find out the origin of a specific product.
The goal is to make people more aware of how Trump and the United States are affecting Europe, says Defrance.
The ongoing wave of French outrage began last year when President Trump unleashed anti-European rhetoric and imposed shock tariffs on large parts of the world. According to a poll by the Ifop polling institute published in Politico, among others, 62 percent of French people said they were in favor of a boycott of US brands such as Coca-Cola, Tesla, KFC, Victoria's Secret, Apple and Nike.
It is difficult to assess whether this has really happened on a large scale, but for Tesla, for example, electric car sales in the EU fell by 38 percent last year. In April, registrations of Tesla cars in France fell by a whopping 46 percent. Since then, anger has been fueled by news of Trump's claim to Greenland and the actions of the immigration police ICE in Minnesota.
And French President Emmanuel Macron seems to have listened to his countrymen. Ahead of a recent informal EU summit, he launched the “Made in Europe” initiative, which aims to create a self-sufficient EU by promoting domestic industry and stopping some global competition.
Tools of the enemy?
Paris-based Defrance says he lives by that motto. He discusses consumption with his children and friends.
"I believe that Europe should ignore the World Cup as long as Donald Trump threatens Greenland and does not help Ukraine," he says.
Despite France's strong tradition of demonstrations, the Boycott the USA movement is largely digital. Defrance's group now has nearly 50,000 members. He doesn't see the fact that it is based on American Facebook as a problem.
"You have to be pragmatic. If the enemy provides you with a tool, you should use it," he reasons.
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US punitive tariffs and the threatening rhetoric directed at Europe and Greenland by the Trump administration in the US are negatively affecting American multinational companies, according to a recent report by the analysis firms Charney Research and Toluna for the American Marketing Association.
The report is based on digital focus group surveys, interviews with 125 decision-makers and marketing directors at American companies, and reviews of over 90,000 conversations in social media (X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and more).
Some conclusions:
Social media posts critical of the US have increased five- to tenfold in Canada, Mexico and France in 2025.
Sales volume, brand equity and prices of US companies have declined during the year. 63 percent of marketing directors predict that sales abroad will continue to be negatively affected in three years.
Foreign customers in the focus groups call the US a "former friend" and a "neighbor who engages in abuse."
Source: The report Building Bridges: Global Marketing in an Era of Anti-Americanism.
