‘Not up to standard’: Macron criticises Trump after comments about his marriage

 

‘Not up to standard’: Macron criticises Trump after comments about his marriage

 

Anger in France after US president puts on French accent and mocks Macron during private lunch in Washington

 

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

Thu 2 Apr 2026 13.07 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/02/macron-criticises-trump-after-comments-about-his-marriage

 

Emmanuel Macron has said Donald Trump’s comments about his marriage were “neither elegant nor up to standard” after the US president put on an accent and mocked his French counterpart and his wife during a private lunch in Washington.

 

Arriving in South Korea on Thursday, Macron made clear his displeasure at Trump’s comments, which appeared briefly in a video on the White House YouTube channel before being removed.

 

“So I am not going to respond to them – they do not merit a response,” Macron told reporters.

 

There was anger in France after Trump appeared to make fun of Macron and his wife during the lunch on Wednesday, guests at which included faith leaders and government figures in Washington, as he lambasted Nato allies for not joining the war against Iran.

 

Mimicking a French accent, Trump said Macron’s wife, Brigitte, “treats him extremely badly”. Speaking about approaching France for help on Iran, Trump said: “We didn’t need them, but I asked anyway.”

 

He added: “I call up France, Macron – whose wife treats him extremely badly. Still recovering from the right to the jaw.”

 

Trump appeared to be referring to a May 2025 video that appeared to show Brigitte Macron pushing her husband’s face as they prepared to disembark from a plane on an official visit to Vietnam.

 

The video, shot by an Associated Press camera operator, showed Macron appearing in the doorway of the plane at the start of a visit to Hanoi. His wife’s hand appears to shove him, causing him to step back before recovering and waving. At the time Macron denied any “domestic dispute” with his wife, saying that they were “joking as we often do”.

 

At the lunch, Trump continued: “And I said, Emmanuel, we’d love to have some help in the Gulf even though we’re setting records on knocking out bad people and knocking out ballistic missiles. We’d love to have some help. If you could, could you please send ships immediately.”

 

Trump then appeared to attempt a French accent to give Macron’s alleged answer: “‘No, no, no, we cannot do that, Donald. We can do that after the war is won,’” he said. “I said, no no, I don’t need after the war is won, Emmanuel,” Trump said.

 

“So I learned about Nato – Nato won’t be there if we ever have the big one, you know what I mean by the big one,” Trump added, without elaborating.

 

Politicians in France were outraged at Trump’s comments. “Honestly, it’s not up to par,” said Yaël Braun-Pivet, the centrist president of France’s lower house of parliament.

 

“We are currently discussing the future of the world. Right now in Iran, this is having consequences for the lives of millions of people, people are dying on the battlefield, and we have a president who is laughing, who is mocking others,” she told the public broadcaster Franceinfo.

 

Manuel Bompard, the national coordinator of the radical left party La France Insoumise, defended Macron. “You are aware of the extent of my disagreements with the president, but for Donald Trump to speak to him like that and to speak of his wife in such a manner – I find that absolutely unacceptable,” Bompard told the broadcaster BFMTV.

 

The conservative French daily Le Figaro said: “Another controversial outburst from Donald Trump.”