It’s unusual to see French President Emmanuel Macron getting smacked around hard by someone who’s not his wife, but that’s precisely what happened at a little past midnight Eastern Time on Tuesday.
That’s when President Donald Trump — who returned from the Group of Seven summit in Alberta, Canada early because of events in the Middle East — dashed a statement Macron made regarding Trump returning to Washington, D.C., to offer a ceasefire to Israel and Iran.
Speaking to reporters at the G7 at Kananaskis after Trump’s announcement, Macron sounded hopeful and said that any attempt for Israel to overthrow Iran’s theocratic state would be a “strategic error.”
“If the United States can achieve a ceasefire, that’s a very good thing,” he said, according to the Times of Israel.
He went on to say that there “is indeed an offer to meet and exchange. An offer was made especially to get a ceasefire and to then kickstart broader discussions. We have to see now whether the sides will follow.”
This sounded sensible enough; after all, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said this was the reason he was leaving the conference, and Trump warned Iranians to get out of Tehran if they could.
“President Trump had a great day at the G7, even signing a major trade deal with the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Much was accomplished, but because of what’s going on in the Middle East, President Trump will be leaving tonight after dinner with Heads of State,” Leavitt wrote in an X post.
President Trump had a great day at the G7, even signing a major trade deal with the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Much was accomplished, but because of what’s going on in the Middle East, President Trump will be leaving tonight after dinner with Heads of State.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) June 16, 2025
Trump, meanwhile, was somewhat more colorful about the reasons behind it:
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 06.16.25 06:30 PM EST pic.twitter.com/HWKYoSrpzo
— MAGA Resource (@MAGAResource) June 16, 2025
He was also a bit more blunt when he corrected Macron in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
“Publicity seeking President Emmanuel Macron, of France, mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to D.C. to work on a ‘cease fire’ between Israel and Iran,” he said on Truth Social.
“Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that. Whether purposely or not, Emmanuel always gets it wrong. Stay Tuned!”
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 06.17.25 01:15 AM EST pic.twitter.com/k0JMyK9Har
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 17, 2025
Add to that the fact that Trump requested the National Security Council meet him in the White House situation room upon his return, according to Reuters, and it’s clear that this isn’t about making peace.
The larger point here is the apparent expectations of the rest of the G7 — namely, that Trump deliver on a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
At the moment, nobody in the administration — or in Israel, or for that matter Iran — seems terribly interested in one, at least on acceptable terms. That’s problematic from Iran’s standpoint, as Israel has total air superiority and seems now to have switched from decimating nuclear and military targets to decimating political ones.
This would almost certainly mean unrest at home, enough of it to topple the theocratic regime in Tehran. As Trump pointed out on Truth Social, this shouldn’t be an outcome that those in the G7 should be unhappy about.
Will Trump eventually use U.S. air power to strike Iran?
Neither Israel nor any other government in the Middle East will be disheartened if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his retinue are unceremoniously booted from power one way or another. And if they want to go out in a blaze of glory, there’s one problem here: There’s no blaze left.
Yet here we have Macron, assuring the world that Trump is going back to Washington to tsk-tsk that pesky Jewish state for sticking up for itself, promising that it would be good and that upending Iran’s 46-year-old travesty of a revolutionary Shi’a government is a “strategic error.”
If Iran wants a ceasefire, it absolutely should get one on whatever terms it can. If not, both it and the rest of the Davosites will get smacked by reality like it was Brigitte Macron.
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