Donald Trump mocked French President Emmanuel Macron for being slapped by his wife Brigitte and for failing to send warships to the Middle East in a new attack on his Nato allies.
The US President was referencing the viral video from last May that appeared to show the French First Lady pushing Macron in the face as they prepared to get off a plane in Vietnam.
Trump’s comments came before a televised address to the American nation on Wednesday night, during which he promised to bomb Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages’ if it didn’t agree to a peace deal.
‘Then I call up France, Macron – whose wife treats him extremely badly – he’s still recovering from the right to the jaw,’ the US President joked during a White House Easter lunch, eliciting laughter from the audience.
‘And I say: “Emmanuel, we’d love to have some help in the Gulf, even though we’re setting records in knocking out bad people and knocking out ballistic missiles, we’d love to have some help… could you please send ships immediately.”‘
The US President then imitated Macron’s response, using a mock French accent: ‘No, no, no, I cannot do that Donald, we can do that after the war is won.’
He continued: ‘I said: “No, no, I don’t need [them] after the war is won, Emmanuel.”‘
In his speech to the American people later that evening, Trump ordered Europe to ‘grab and cherish’ the Strait of Hormuz as he announced the US was ‘very close’ to ending the war with Iran.
Nato nations have been reluctant to help secure the strait, through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil travels daily, while Tehran continues to pummel commercial ships with drones and missiles.
Donald Trump mocked French President Emmanuel Macron for taking a ‘right to the jaw’ from his wife Brigitte during a White House Easter lunch on Wednesday
The US President was referencing the viral video from last May that appeared to show the French First Lady pushing Macron in the face as they prepared to get off a plane in Vietnam
‘The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it, they can do it easily,’ Trump said, defending the American military campaign against Iran.
‘We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.’
‘Build up some delayed courage,’ he told his European allies.
Ever since Tehran enforced the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the war, the world has been plunged into the worst oil crisis in history, with prices hurtling towards $200 a barrel and the threat of a global recession looming.
Trump has repeatedly called on his European allies to send naval warships to help reopen the waterway, but their collective reluctance has led to an ever-widening rift in transatlantic relations.
The US President dubbed Nato a ‘paper tiger’ and said removing America from the defence treaty was now ‘beyond reconsideration’ in an interview with the Telegraph.
In recent weeks, he has accused European nations of being ‘cowards’ who have done ‘absolutely nothing’ to help his war with Iran, declaring: ‘The U.S.A. needs nothing from NATO, but “never forget” this very important point in time!’
The sentiment was echoed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said America will ‘reexamine’ its relationship with NATO once the Iran war has ended.
‘I think there’s no doubt, unfortunately, after this conflict is concluded, we are going to have to reexamine that relationship. We’re going to have to reexamine the value of NATO in that alliance for our country,’ Rubio said on Fox News, adding that ‘ultimately’ it would be a decision for President Trump to make.
As well as mocking Macron and the French response to the war, Trump has also singled out Britain, deriding Sir Keir Starmer as ‘no Winston Churchill‘.
Last week, the US President described Britain’s aircraft carriers as ‘toys compared to what we have’ in a swipe at the UK’s lack of support for his war against the Islamic Republic.
Speaking to reporters at the White House last Thursday, Trump said: ‘The British said: “We’ll send our aircraft carriers” – which aren’t the best aircraft carriers by the way, they are toys compared to what we have – “We’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over”. I said: “That’s wonderful, thank you very much – don’t bother.”‘
It comes amid claims that the US President threatened to stop supplying weapons for Ukraine in order to pressure European nations into joining a ‘coalition of the willing’ to reopen the strait.
In response to the reluctance of Nato nations to send warships to the passageway, Trump said he would stop supplying Nato’s Purl, a European-funded initiative which secures the procurement of US weapons for Kyiv‘s war, according to the Financial Times.
As a result of Trump’s warning, and at the urging of Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, a group of countries including France, Germany and the UK issued an urgent statement on March 19 which said: ‘We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait [of Hormuz].’
An official briefed on the President’s thinking told the FT: ‘It was Rutte who insisted on the joint statement because Trump had threatened to withdraw from Purl and from Ukraine in general.
‘The statement was then quickly put together, and other countries joined in afterwards because there was not enough time to invite everyone to sign up straight away.’
In the two days before the hastily written statement was published, Rutte was involved in several calls with Trump and US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The Nato chief will travel to Washington next week for a ‘long-planned visit’ as tensions continue to escalate.
The president appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door
In May last year, Macron‘s office admitted that his wife Brigitte hit him during a row, after footage showed the First Lady appearing to push his face away as their plane touched down.
Shocking video of the incident, shot by the Associated Press news agency in Hanoi, shows the French President’s plane door opening to reveal him.
His wife Brigitte’s arms then emerge from the left of the open doorway as she places both hands on her husband’s face and gives it a shove.
The president appears startled but quickly recovers and turns to wave through the open door.
She remains concealed by the aircraft body, making it impossible to see her facial expression or body language.
The couple then proceed down the staircase for the official welcome by Vietnamese officials, though Brigitte does not take her husband’s offered arm.
Macron’s office initially denied the authenticity of the images, before they were confirmed as genuine.
A close associate of the president later described the incident as a couple’s harmless ‘squabble’.
An Elysee official played down the moment, denying it showed an argument between the couple, who have been married since 2007: ‘It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh.’
‘It was a moment of closeness,’ the official said.
Another member of his entourage played down the significance of the incident.
‘It was a moment when the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by joking around,’ the second source told reporters.
‘It’s a moment of togetherness. No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists,’ the source added, blaming pro-Russian accounts for negative comments about the incident.
The video clip circulated rapidly online, promoted particularly by accounts that are habitually hostile to the French leader.
