U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 24, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
REUTERS | Published February 25, 2025
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U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 24, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
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RELATED: In Gently Correcting Trump, Macron Sends a Message on Ukraine Peace Deal
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 24: U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron embrace during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House on February 24, 2025 in Washington, DC. Macron is meeting with Trump in Washington on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
TIME | Published February 25, 2025
French President Emmanuel Macron considers himself a Trump-whisperer. His careful handling of President Donald Trump was on full display at the White House on Monday. Macron generously seasoned his comments with a lot of appreciative “thank you”s and “Dear Donald”s. He thanked Trump for rearranging his schedule to meet with Macron on short notice. And he casually corrected his American counterpart on one of the most pressing issues on the global stage.
Macron had jetted to Washington on a last-minute emergency mission to repair the widening rift between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the hopes of setting a fresh course for negotiations to end Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. European leaders have grown increasingly alarmed by Trump’s vocal criticism of Zelenky and Trump’s turn toward Moscow. On Monday, the U.S. joined Russia, North Korea and Iran in voting against a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Macron had jetted to Washington on a last-minute emergency mission to repair the widening rift between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the hopes of setting a fresh course for negotiations to end Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. European leaders have grown increasingly alarmed by Trump’s vocal criticism of Zelenky and Trump’s turn toward Moscow. On Monday, the U.S. joined Russia, North Korea and Iran in voting against a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Trump himself has taken a more belligerent posture toward multiple longtime U.S. allies in recent weeks, saying the U.S. should take over Greenland from Denmark and that Canada should be the 51st state. Trump also said he wanted a ceasefire deal quickly between Ukraine and Russia, but that the U.S. wasn’t going to help Ukraine anymore without some sort of payout.
“Our administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy failures of the past administration,” Trump said on Monday.
Trump has in recent days proposed that Ukraine agree to hand over rights to valuable rare earth minerals in its territory, saying the U.S. taxpayers “deserve to recoup the colossal amounts of money that we sent” in military assistance the past three years.
But Macron seemed intent on speaking into existence a different reality. Standing next to Trump in the East Room, the French President said, “I think that no one in this room wants to live in a world where it’s the law of the strongest and international borders can be violated from one day to the next.”
In making the lofty statement, Macron ignored how Trump’s recent public comments have described exactly that kind of world. The rhetorical strategy was part of Macron’s effort to keep the unsteady peace talks moving forward. While some in the international community have derided Trump’s proposal for Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, Macron sees it as a way to keep Trump, and by extension the U.S., invested in defending Ukraine, if only for its natural resources. The French President said Zelensky would be coming to Washington in the coming weeks to discuss the rare earth minerals deal and said that is a “very important step forward” and a “turning point” toward the U.S. involvement in a peace deal.
Notably, during the press conference, Trump didn’t make any promises about Ukraine or Europe’s security. Instead, Macron took it upon himself to speak on behalf of the U.S. If there’s a peace agreement for Ukraine that the U.S. and European powers negotiate with Russia, the French President said, any violation by Russia would put it in conflict with “everyone involved in the peace process.”
And Macron went on to praise the “deterrence capacity on the American side” to deter Russian aggression. That deterrence has traditionally stemmed from 75 years of U.S. promises—through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization— to defend Europe from a Russian invasion. But on Monday, Trump was silent on those obligations.
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