French President Emmanuel Macron called Donald Trump’s personal remarks targeting his marriage “neither elegant nor of a high standard” on Thursday, refusing to engage as the two leaders’ clash over the Iran war turned openly personal.
Trump made the remarks at a private White House lunch on Wednesday in a video posted — then removed — from the White House’s YouTube page, saying Macron’s wife “treats him extremely badly” and that the French president was “still recovering from the punch he took to the jaw.” The comments referenced a 2025 clip in which Brigitte Macron appeared to shove her husband’s face as the couple exited a plane — an incident Macron dismissed at the time as a disinformation campaign.
“So I’m not going to answer — it doesn’t deserve an answer,” Macron told reporters in Seoul. “We’re talking about too serious things. We’re speaking of war, women and men who are at war, civilians who are killed, and the consequences of this war on our economies.”
The remarks drew cross-party condemnation in France. National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet said: “We are currently discussing the future of the world. People are dying on the battlefield, and we have a president who is laughing, who is mocking others.” Opposition lawmakers also united to denounce the comments as unacceptable.
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The exchange sits atop a deepening policy rupture. France has refused to allow US military aircraft carrying Iran campaign supplies to fly over its territory. Trump called France “very unhelpful” on March 31 and said responsibility for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open falls on countries that rely on it — “That’s not for us. That’ll be for France.” Macron reiterated Thursday that France would not join the military campaign against Iran.
At the UN Security Council on Thursday, France joined Russia and China in blocking an Arab-backed resolution to authorize military force to reopen the strait. Macron has called any such operation “unrealistic,” pushing instead for a multilateral naval escort mission — independent of US command — to begin once active hostilities subside. French Defense Chief Fabien Mandon has held talks with around 35 countries about the initiative.
Read: Russia, China, France Block UN Push to Authorize Force in Strait of Hormuz
France, Germany, and other NATO members have publicly refused to join the conflict and are rallying around a diplomatic framework ahead of the G7 summit in Evian, France, in June. Meanwhile, Trump:
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