‘To Be Frank’: Macron Touches Trump’s Arm and Fact Checks Him on Europe ‘Loans’ to Ukraine

President Trump and President Macron refer to each other as friends, but during the French leader’s visit to Washington, there was plenty of tension simmering beneath their handshakes and jokes.Mr. Macron visited the White House on Monday for a day of meetings with Mr. Trump on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During a press availability in the Oval Office on Monday, the French president suggested that Russia should be required to compensate America for the money it has sent to Ukraine.Mr. Trump interjected that European nations are “loaning” money and that they will get their money back. Then Mr. Macron attempted to fact-check Mr. Trump, touching his arm and saying, in English, “No, in fact, to be frank, we paid 60 percent of the total effort.” He said the aid came in the form of “loans, guarantees, grants… We provided real money, to be clear.”“If, at the end of the day, in the negotiations we will have with Russia, they are ready to give it to us, super! It will be a loan at the end of the day, and Russia will have paid for it,” he said.Mr. Trump quipped, “If you believe, it’s OK with me. But they get their money back, and we don’t.”While Mr. Macron disagreed about the nature of Europe’s assistance to Ukraine, he agreed that European nations should pay more to “more fairly share the security burden that [America] has been carrying for so many years.”Besides the conversation about Ukraine, the two leaders’ sometimes awkward interactions garnered attention throughout the day. The French president’s visit to the White House started with a possible snub when greeted not by Mr. Trump but by the chief of protocol, Monica Crowley, outside the West Wing, a departure from the traditional protocol for visiting dignitaries. Presidents typically greet visiting heads of state at the north portico of the White House, and the decision by Mr. Trump to forgo the diplomatic nicety sparked speculation that it was an intentional snub of the French president.Yet when Mr. Macron returned to the White House after a brief departure, he was greeted outside by Mr. Trump, who met him with a handshake that some observers said resembled more of a game of tug of war as he appeared to firmly grip the foreign leader’s hand and yank it back and forth. The extended handshake also occurred between Messrs. Macron and Trump during Mr. Trump’s first term.At one point, Mr. Trump made a joke about Mr. Macron having spoken French in front of him at a prior event. “That is the most beautiful language,” he said. “I have no idea what he said, but that is the most elegant, beautiful language.” He then placed his hand on Mr. Macron’s lap, who reciprocated by grasping the American president’s wrist, leading to an unusual handshake that jerked up and down while both men laughed toward the cameras.At the end of their press conference, Mr. Trump said to his much younger French counterpart, “Emmanuel, thank you very much. Great job. It’s been wonderful being with you. Say hello to your beautiful wife.”In Mr. Trump’s first term, many press outlets wrote about the supposed “bromance” between the two men, who planted a symbolic friendship tree on the White House grounds. However, their relationship appears to have soured somewhat since then. In 2018, Mr. Trump mocked Mr. Macron and France on Twitter. In November of that year, he wrote, “Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two – How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!”During the 2024 campaign, he mimicked Mr. Macron’s accent as he regaled his supporters with a conversation he supposedly had about tariffs. In an interview with Fox News last week, Mr. Trump called Mr. Macron a “friend” but said the French president and Prime Minister Starmer “haven’t done anything” to end the war in Ukraine.Mr. Macron’s visit and the G7 summit come just after America and Russia held talks in Saudi Arabia aimed at ending war and as European nations fear that Ukraine will not be included in the negotiations. Mr. Macron said last week that he wanted to encourage Mr. Trump not to appear “weak” before President Putin.“It’s not you, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest. How can you then be credible in the face of China if you’re weak in the face of Putin?” he said during a question-and-answer event with a social media audience. He has argued that an end to the war should come with “strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians.”In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Mr. Trump noted that “President Emmanuel Macron of France joined me in the Oval Office to speak to the G7 summit.” He said the leaders “expressed their goal of seeing the War end.”The post had no jabs at Mr. Macron. However, it did include a slight against a different leader, “Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada.”

‘To Be Frank’: Macron Touches Trump’s Arm and Fact Checks Him on Europe ‘Loans’ to Ukraine

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