President Trump is catching heat in France after mocking Emmanuel Macron and his wife during a private lunch, complete with a fake French accent and a jab that Brigitte Macron "treats him extremely badly." Trump made the remarks as he criticized NATO allies for not joining the war against Iran, and a short-lived White House YouTube video captured him recounting a phone call with Macron, whom he also portrayed as reluctant to send military support, per France 24.
French politicians across the spectrum pushed back. National Assembly chief Yael Braun-Pivet called Trump's behavior out of step with the gravity of the Iran conflict, while left-wing figure Manuel Bompard—normally a fierce Macron critic—said Trump's comments about the couple were "absolutely unacceptable." Macron, speaking from South Korea, dismissed the remarks as neither "elegant" nor "up to standard." Trump also referenced a video from last year claiming to show Brigitte Macron striking her husband, which Macron has previously described as misleading footage of the pair fooling around.
In the same riff, Trump again derided NATO, labeling the alliance a "paper tiger" and suggesting it might not be there to help out "if we ever have the big one." Per the Guardian, Macron also went after Trump for his remarks on NATO, saying they "erode its very substance." "When you have signed a treaty, you don't question it every morning or keep saying whether you will act," Macron noted, per Bloomberg. "You say nothing—and the day there is a problem, you are there." The French president also said he thought it was "unrealistic" to take the Strait of Hormuz by force.
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