{"id":480,"date":"2025-02-25T08:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T08:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/25\/macron-the-trump-whisperer-works-his-magic-but-us-and-europe-remain-an-ocean-apart-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T08:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T08:44:08","slug":"macron-the-trump-whisperer-works-his-magic-but-us-and-europe-remain-an-ocean-apart-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/25\/macron-the-trump-whisperer-works-his-magic-but-us-and-europe-remain-an-ocean-apart-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron the \u2018Trump whisperer\u2019 works his magic but US and Europe remain an ocean apart – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It was a delicate balancing act for the man once considered Europe\u2019s \u201cTrump whisperer\u201d.<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was seated in the Oval Office gently trying to factcheck Donald Trump<\/a> in real time as the US president pushed a narrative that Ukraine had taken advantage of US support during its defense against Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion. Now, said Trump, it is time to get paid back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis war cost all of us a lot of money,\u201d said Macron as a scowling Trump looked on. \u201cAnd this is the responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/gu-island><\/figure>\n

Trump broke in. \u201cJust so you understand, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cThey get their money back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Macron placed his hand gently on Trump\u2019s wrist. \u201cTo be frank, we paid 60% of the total effort\u2026 we provided real money to be clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

For much of today\u2019s summit with Trump, Macron sought to provide a master class in how to manage a belligerent friend. He praised Trump for his leadership. He clapped him on the back and smiled as the two acted like old friends outside of the White House. In an interview with Fox News, Trump\u2019s beloved television station, Macron called his election a \u201cgame-changer\u201d and said that his initiative was a \u201cpositive one.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he also held firm, resisting Trump\u2019s efforts to physically dominate him, and he maintained that Russia was responsible for the war. That is a simple truth that has suddenly disappeared from the mouths of Trump\u2019s advisers as the US president abruptly began negotiations with Russia and delivered Ukraine an ultimatum in the form of a punishing \u201crare earth metals deal\u201d. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that signing it would force his people to pay the US back for \u201cten generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not clear that any relationship, even one with such evident bonhomie as that between Macron and Trump, can bridge the chasm growing between the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n

Macron and Keir Starmer, who is set to come to Washington later this week, are trying to salvage a trans-Atlantic alliance under its greatest strain in generations. They argue that US support for European defence is a sound investment, and that Trump must not achieve peace by simply throwing Ukraine under the bus.<\/p>\n

But Trump has also held them responsible for failing to negotiate a peace between Ukraine and Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t do anything either\u201d to end the war, he said during an interview with Fox Business earlier this week. \u201cThe war\u2019s going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing\u2026 They haven\u2019t done anything. Macron is a friend of mine, and I\u2019ve met with the Prime Minister and he\u2019s a very nice guy\u2026 [but] nobody\u2019s done anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US president\u2019s turn towards a closer relationship with Vladimir Putin has created a strain that was evident on Monday at the United Nations as the US tried to scuttle a joint resolution from the European Union and Ukraine that condemned Russia three years after Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It passed with the US and Russia both voting against the resolution.<\/p>\n

Others in Europe are running out of patience. In Germany, Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany\u2019s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and likely Germany\u2019s next chancellor, said in an interview over the the weekend that his \u201cabsolute priority will be to strengthen Europe<\/a> as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never have believed that I would have to say something like that on television,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the very least, after Donald Trump\u2019s statements last week, it is clear that the Americans – at least this part of the Americans in this administration – are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macron leaves Washington without a firm promise of US support or a clear change in Trump\u2019s stance on the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Starmer will also have his work cut out for him when he meets with Trump on Thursday. He too will try to coax the US president away from the brink of a split with Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to rile Trump, that would be totally counterproductive both to our interests and those of Ukrainian and European security,\u201d one aide told the Guardian<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re much more interested in what he actually does, rather than what he says. So far, we think there\u2019s a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a delicate balancing act for the man once considered Europe\u2019s \u201cTrump whisperer\u201d. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was seated in the Oval Office gently trying to factcheck Donald Trump in real time as the US president pushed a narrative that Ukraine had taken advantage of US support during its defense against Russia\u2019s full-scale […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}