French President Emmanuel Macron has hit back at US President Donald Trump after he mocked Macron’s marriage and wife Brigitte at a private lunch in Washington
Emmanuel Macron has rebuked Donald Trump following the US president’s mockery of his French counterpart, which included mimicking a French accent and making jibes about his marriage.
Macron described Trump’s comments regarding his relationship as “neither elegant nor up to standard”. “So I am not going to respond to them – they do not merit a response,” he informed journalists on Thursday while visiting South Korea.
The remarks were delivered by Trump on Wednesday at a private Washington lunch, where faith leaders and government officials were present. His statements – which featured condemnation of NATO partners for declining to support the US-Israeli military action against Iran – appeared momentarily in footage on the White House YouTube channel before being taken down.
Adopting a French accent, Trump claimed Macron’s wife, Brigitte, “treats him extremely badly”. Discussing his request for French assistance regarding Iran, Trump stated: “We didn’t need them, but I asked anyway.”
He continued: “I call up France, Macron – whose wife treats him extremely badly. Still recovering from the right to the jaw.”, reports the Mirror.
Trump was alluding to footage captured in May 2025 which seemingly depicted the French first lady striking her husband across the face as they readied themselves to disembark from an aircraft during an official Vietnamese visit.
In the recording, filmed by an Associated Press photographer, Brigitte’s hand can be seen making contact with Macron, forcing him backwards momentarily before he regained composure and waved. The French president dismissed suggestions of any “domestic dispute” with his spouse, explaining at the time that they were “joking as we often do”.
During the lunch, Trump went on: “And I said, Emmanuel, we’d love to have some help in the Gulf even though we’re setting records on knocking out bad people and knocking out ballistic missiles. We’d love to have some help. If you could, could you please send ships immediately.”
Trump then seemingly adopted a French accent while recounting Macron’s purported response: “‘No, no, no, we cannot do that, Donald. We can do that after the war is won,’” he said. “I said, no no, I don’t need after the war is won, Emmanuel,” Trump added.
French politicians reacted with fury to Trump’s remarks, with Yaël Braun-Pivet, the centrist president of France’s lower house of parliament, declaring: “Honestly, it’s not up to par”.
“We are currently discussing the future of the world. Right now in Iran, this is having consequences for the lives of millions of people, people are dying on the battlefield, and we have a president who is laughing, who is mocking others,” she told public broadcaster France Info.
Manuel Bompard, the national coordinator of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, leapt to Macron’s defence, stating: “You are aware of the extent of my disagreements with the president, but for Donald Trump to speak to him like that and to speak of his wife in such a manner – I find that absolutely unacceptable,” he told broadcaster BFMTV.
The conservative French daily newspaper Le Figaro, meanwhile, observed: “Another controversial outburst from Donald Trump.”
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