Emmanuel Macron hits back at Donald Trump after US President mocked him over marriage: ‘Neither elegant nor up to standard’

Ben Chapman
Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:13:30 +0000

President Donald Trump’s mockery of Emmanuel Macron’s marriage has sparked a fierce rebuttal from his French counterpart.

Mr Trump poked fun at Mr Macron and his wife, Brigitte, by imitating a French accident and saying she “treats him extremely badly”.

Even political foes of the French President have jumped to his defence, including the leader of the hard-left France Unbowed party, Manuel Bompard.

Now Mr Macron has sniped back, saying the disparaging comments were “neither elegant nor up to standard”.

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The US President was making reference to a May 2025 video that appeared to show Brigitte Macron shoving her husband’s face while visiting Vietnam.

Mr Macron later rejected the notion his 18-year-long relationship was on the ropes, accusing detractors of pumping out a disinformation campaign.

He also denied any “domestic dispute” with his wife, saying that they were “joking as we often do”.

The US President was taking aim at NATO leaders including Mr Macron over their inaction following his and Israel’s joint invasion of Iran.

Describing a conversation he held with his French counterpart, he said: “I said, ‘Emmanuel, we’d love some help in the Gulf even through we’re setting records on knocking out bad people and knocking out ballistic missiles.

“’We’d love some help. If you could, could you please send ships immediately?”

He then proceeds to mimic a French accent to give Mr Macron’s alleged answer, saying: “‘No, no, no, we cannot do that Donald. We can do that after the war is won.’”

“I said, ’no, no, I don’t need that after the war is won Emmanuel’”, Mr Trump said of his apparent response.

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He also called Nato a “paper tiger”, his latest swipe at the transatlantic alliance which Mr Trump yesterday admitted the US might leave.

Mr Trump also called on countries to show “delayed courage” if they want the Strait of Hormuz to reopen.

Britain is looking to lead a diplomatic initiative on the matter with France, Germany and others to restore access to the vital waterway.

Iran is currently throttling the maritime route in retaliation for the US-Israel campaign against it.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper today condemned “Iranian recklessness” for “hitting global economic security” in a summit with a coalition of countries.

Chairing a video call with counterparts and representatives from more than 40 countries on Thursday, the Foreign Secretary said: “In today’s meeting, we are focusing on the diplomatic and international planning measures, including collective mobilisation of our full range of diplomatic and economic tools and pressures, reassurance work with industry, insurers and energy markets, and also action to guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers, and effective coordination that we need across the world to enable a safe and sustained opening of the strait.”

She hit out at Tehran after “over 25 attacks on vessels in the strait” and said “there are some 20,000 trapped seafarers on some 2,000 trapped ships”.

She said: “Iranian recklessness towards countries who were never involved in this conflict… is not just hitting mortgage rates and petrol prices and the cost of living here in the UK and in many different countries across the world, it is hitting our global economic security.”