Whatever social points Donald Trump loses in the etiquette game while strong-arming the rulers of illegals' countries of origin into taking them back, that they do cave makes all the pearl-clutching and chest fluttering worth it.

Take Venezuela, for instance. The mustachioed Nicolás Maduro tough guy, who would routinely eat POTATUS' lunch, has been through two rounds of playing 'I ain't GONNA' only to wind up backing down when Trump sets to thumpin' on him.

The latest was refusing, once again, to accept planeloads of his illegals being deported back to Venezuela while dramatically claiming the Tren de Aragua gang members entrusted to President Bukele's care in El Salvador were 'kidnapped.'

This current refusal had been a fit of pique when Trump canceled the sketchy Chevron oil deal Biden had worked with the dictator.

...Venezuela stopped accepting repatriation flights from the U.S. on March 8. It came after Trump announced that the U.S. would cancel the Biden-era permit that allowed California-based Chevron to extract and export oil from Venezuela, a major source of revenue for the country.

Our Secretary of State pointed out to the Venezuelan government that if they thought that was bad, they hadn't seen nuthin' like they were going to if they didn't start taking their scummy ex-pats back, stat.

...But last week Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the Trump administration would impose "new, severe, and escalating sanctions" on the country unless it began accepting migrants again.

Maduro snorted, did the math, and 'I look forward to seeing mi hermanos!' with a little bit of snippy, obligatory bluster thrown in to save face.

Venezuela has announced that it will resume accepting flights of its citizens who are deported by U.S. immigration authorities.

Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, said on Saturday in a post on social media that the repatriation flights would begin again as early as Sunday. "Migration is not a crime," he added.

Trump has the big stick firmly in his hand.

Elfin French president Emmanuel Macron has no such advantage, wielding more of a twig that he can wave ineffectually. But he does have a real problem.

Algerians.

Inside the country, ex-pat Algerians are waging an anti-French hate campaign, inciting violence and encouraging terrorism in France.

Ultranationalist social media influencers from Algeria are spreading hate across France — the country that used to rule it.

The trend has triggered a wave of nervousness in government in Paris, with several high-profile arrests over the past few weeks. A handful of online influencers have built a large audience, incited violence and terrorist activity, and, in some cases, targeted French-based opponents of the Algerian regime.

The influencers are “profiteering from a context of heightened tensions between France and Algeria” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told weekly newspaper L’Express.

Relations between France and its former colony have been fraught for decades, poisoned by resentment over the 132-year bloody rule, violence committed during Algeria’s war of independence that ended in 1962, and, more recently, deadlock on migration issues.

There are over two million Algerians and those of Algerian descent living in France.

There are still plenty of issues regarding France's 132-year-long, often brutal rule over the country that have been recently exacerbated by the French siding with Morocco over a Western Sahara dispute.

...Macron’s Western Sahara move came after unsuccessful efforts by the French president to try to mend the relationship. It was interpreted by some as a pragmatic move by Macron, presumably to strengthen its relationship with one of the few remaining allies it has in the region, at the expense of Algeria. A lot of France’s historical allies in the Sahel — many of which are former colonies — turned hostile.

The Western Sahara move and Macron’s open support to Sansal infuriated the Algerian regime, which some are now suspecting of fueling the online campaign powered by members of the Algerian diaspora, either directly or by proxy.

The frangible Algerian government was stung by yet another seeming French betrayal and lashed out, including telling the French president he could keep his terrorist and trouble-making Algerian illegals. They were not welcome to return home.

They certainly don't need such rabble-rousers, either.

In Macron's case, unlike the United States, there is little he can do to change the outcome even though the two countries aren't fighting over hundreds of criminals - merely sixty.

A fiery Western leader on immigration is desperate to deport a series of violent criminals southward to a country the West once had great influence over—but that country is resisting.

France (did you think I was talking about somewhere else?) is home to a very large Algerian population, many of whom the French government has no issue with. Some, however, they would like to see deported to their home country. This includes murderers who have been sentenced to life in prison and social media stars who have stirred up hatred against Jews, among others. The total list of deportees currently stands at 60, a relatively paltry sum.

The problem for France is that they cannot be called deportees—instead, one needs to affix the word “attempted”. That’s because the Algerian government is not playing ball, and has flatly refused to take the deportees. When France sends them to Algeria, they send them back almost immediately. From the Algerian perspective, this entirely makes sense: after all, most of the desired deportees are genuine radicals who would not benefit Algerian society. At “best” they would sit in prison, a drain on the state; at worst, they would be in society, spreading radical ideas.

The French are doing everything to cajole the Algerians into going along, but that country knows they pretty much have the French over a wine barrel.

❝We aspire to have smooth relations with #Algeria. Our two countries have deep-rooted, unparalleled ties, historical ties, human ties, but also economic ties. [...] As @jnbarrot has said, it takes two to have a balanced
and constructive relationship. We cannot unilaterally… pic.twitter.com/gmaJddeUYT

— France Diplomacy 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@francediplo_EN) March 21, 2025

The French have no real stick. And, in a very French-like manner, the one stick they do still sort of have, they won't use.

...This lack of leverage is likely why the French government has zoomed in on a threat to revoke the treaty allowing for the (relatively) easy migration of Algerians into France. That agreement gave Algeria generous benefits, like being able to get 10-year resident permits more quickly than other nationalities. It came shortly after Algeria gained independence, when France was still trying to keep some sort of close relationship with its former colony.

But France has failed so far to even credibly threaten to break the treaty. Last week, Retailleau posted that he “[regretted] that Algeria refuses to apply international law.” Further, he threatened to undertake a “gradual response” to Algeria’s refusal to accept the deportees.

Nothing says applying a hammer like the use of the word 'gradual.'

In fact, all 'gradual' did was embolden the Algerians, who called the 'gradual' threat 'heavy-handed' and raised the bet.

🇫🇷🇩🇿 Diplomatic crisis: Algeria bans French aid, ditches French for English, signaling a historic break from colonial ties. Macron’s heavy-handed tactics backfire as Algeria rejects “neo-colonial coercion,” pic.twitter.com/Vr5E5KekIF

— Rukumis (@RukumisG) March 22, 2025

Even a French left-wing senator called 'gradual' a 'provocation.' 

I mean, there's no way to win this one without France backing down and paying them off to take all sixty troublemakers.

This is what happens when you've no stick at all.