The bilateral meeting between Presidents Trump and Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday at the NATO’s 70th-anniversary summit, was the most anticipated because of remarks made by the French President just days before the summit.
Responding to questions during a Q&A session on the first day of the summit, President Trump did not hold back.
“You can’t just go around making statements like that about NATO. It’s very disrespectful,” he said.
Speaking to reporters for nearly an hour, Trump criticized Macron for insulting the 70-year old alliance when he called it “brain dead” and blamed him (Trump) for it. Hitting back, Trump called the statement “very, very nasty” and said the French President could “just go around making statements like that about NATO.”
He then accused him of being “very disrespectful.”
called for presiding over a failing economy and troubled country.
With NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg seated beside him during a bilateral meeting, Trump accused the French President of trying to ditch the alliance and undermine it.
Before the summit, Macron had tried unsuccessfully to galvanize support to disparage the alliance in favour of a European army.
This led Trump to further accuse Macron of making a “dangerous statement” while pointing out that if anybody needed NATO, it was France.
“NATO serves a great purpose. I think that’s very insulting,” he added.
Despite the visible tension and differences between the two leaders, they seemed to have made up by the end of day as President Trump gave the French leader a ride on The Beast later at night to 10 Downing Street.
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