‘The Washington Post’: The French president is seeking to preserve U.S.-European ties

President Donald Trump greets French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Monday.
Photo: The Washington Post/AP

The French president is seeking to preserve U.S.-European ties even as the United States under Trump may no longer be a reliable partner against Russia, writes ‘The Washington Post’.

French President Emmanuel Macron tried Monday to bend President Donald Trump back to the side of Kyiv and Europe, after an intense White House effort to end the war in Ukraine in which the U.S. leader blamed Ukraine, not Russia.

Meeting Trump in the Oval Office, Macron scrambled to salvage transatlantic ties amid what appears to be a historic realignment between Washington and Moscow.

The French visit came as the Trump administration sided with Russia and against Ukraine and Europe at the United Nations in votes about how to mark the grim date. It was the most profound split between Western allies at the international body since the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003, and it was yet another signal of the way in which Trump has embraced Russia, a historic foe, rather than Europe and Ukraine, the United States’ longtime partners.

What could have been an acrimonious encounter was instead mostly friendly, at least in front of cameras, as Macron declared they had made progress in U.S. backing for a European plan to deploy troops to Ukraine to secure a peace deal. Trump, meanwhile, said that he admired Macron’s handling of the five-year reconstruction of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris following a 2019 fire.

“It’s time to end this bloodletting and restore peace, and I think we’re going to do it. We’ve had some great conversations, including with Russia, since my return to the White House,” Trump said, speaking alongside Macron in the East Room. “My administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy values of the past administration, and, frankly, the past.”

Macron has in the past attempted to create positive ties with Trump through sheer force of will, declaring that the two leaders were aligned even if they did not begin that way. On Monday, it appeared he would use the same strategy, as the two men bantered slightly about weighty disagreements in front of reporters ahead of their meeting, such as whether European countries gave loans to Ukraine while the United States gave grants, which Trump has complained about repeatedly.

Macron on Monday expressed openness to deploying European peacekeepers to Ukraine as part of an effort to secure a peace deal there, a step that would be part of a broader effort to shift more of the burden of backing Ukraine onto Europe’s shoulders.

Macron appeared to try to rope Trump into a public acknowledgment of a U.S. backstop for European security guarantees for Ukraine.

Trump made no comment about Macron’s summary of the discussions, neither affirming it nor contradicting the French leader.

Europeans have grown alarmed by Trump’s shift from decades of U.S. caution toward Moscow and initial U.S. talks with Russia that excluded Europeans and Ukrainians. Trump’s broadside against Zelensky in recent days further deepened uncertainty about future U.S. backing for Kyiv. It also fueled European anxiety over a U.S. president rapidly redrawing alliances, and it reinforced a sense, which Macron has long championed, among many European leaders that they need to take greater charge of their own security.

Macron convened two emergency meetings at the Elysee presidential palace last week as he brought together a crisis coalition of sorts: He gathered the continent’s leaders to coordinate a response on boosting Ukraine’s leverage and bolstering European defenses as they reevaluate relations with the United States.

France and Britain have been drawing up plans for a “reassurance” force that could be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire deal.

Starmer has said a “U.S. backstop” to security guarantees would be necessary.

Photo: ‘The Daily Mail’

Donald Trump appeared to humiliate Emmanuel Macron this afternoon when he didn't greet him on his arrival at the White House, and perched him by the side of his desk in the Oval Office, notes ‘The Daily Mail’.

Footage showed the French president pulling up in a black car before he was welcomed into the West Wing by Acting White House Chief of Protocol Abigail Jones.

Images have also revealed Macron in the corner of his Oval Office desk during a Zoom call with world leaders – while Trump sat in the middle.

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