Washington
CNN
—
French President Emmanuel Macron tried Monday to inject a dose of reality into President Donald Trump’s ambitions to end the war in Ukraine, insisting they sought the same outcome of peace while simultaneously warning of Russia’s poor track record in keeping its international commitments.
He stressed repeatedly the necessity of security guarantees to ensure Moscow keeps its promises this time around, and said any agreement must be “checked and verified.” And he recounted his own conversations with Vladimir Putin, saying there was value in talking to the Russian leader but only from a position of strength.
“We want peace. He wants peace,” Macron said of his US counterpart as he stood next to Trump. “We want peace, peace swiftly, but we don’t want an agreement that is weak.”
“This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine,” he said.
Trump, meanwhile, offered no mention of security guarantees when it was his turn to speak at Monday’s joint news conference. Instead, he portrayed himself as a master negotiator in search of a deal.
“I’ve spoken to President Putin, and my people are dealing with him constantly, and his people in particular, and they want to do something,” he said from the East Room. “I mean, that’s what I do. I do deals. My whole life is deals. That’s all I know, is deals. And I know when somebody wants to make it and when somebody doesn’t.”
Macron had hoped to use his yearslong interpersonal relationship with Trump to press Europe and Ukraine’s case after a week of serious deterioration in transatlantic ties. And the men did seem friendly, trading kind words and smiles throughout their hours together. Trump lavished praise on Macron for overseeing the swift rebuilding of Paris’ Notre-Dame cathedral after a fire almost destroyed it.
Macron also sought to emphasize areas of agreement. Reiterating a stance he has held for months, he acknowledged Europeans must shoulder more responsibility for their own security, a stance on which the French leader is aligned in principle with Trump.
But their differences were still rather obvious, and by the end of the day it did not appear Trump had moved significantly from his positions on who was responsible for the Ukraine war or whether Europe had done enough to support Kyiv.
As the two leaders met Monday, a US-led resolution that did not call Russia the aggressor in the war passed in the UN Security Council with support from Moscow and without the backing of the US’ European allies.
And in an extraordinary moment that underscored the strained dynamics of Monday’s talks between the French and American presidents, Macron attempted to correct his US counterpart on the nature of European support for Ukraine, interrupting Trump as he was speaking to suggest he was misstating the facts.
“Just so you understand, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They’re getting their money back,” Trump began as he was preparing to make the case for a new deal to secure Ukraine’s mineral revenues.
That is when Macron reached over to grab Trump’s arm to interject.
“No, in fact, to be frank, we paid. We paid 60% of the total effort. It was like the US: loans, guarantees, grants,” he said, as Trump smiled ruefully.
Trump did voice openness to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine, a plan he’s expected to learn more about later this week when he receives the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He even said he’d discussed the idea with Putin, and that the Russian president was also open to the idea.
Later, Macron described Europeans as acting as an “assurance force” in Ukraine, with Americans acting “in solidarity,” though it was clear the precise contours of the plan still need to be worked out.
Trump also said he was prepared to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky soon to finalize a deal that would allow US access to Ukraine’s mineral revenues, a development Macron welcomed.
“It looks like we’re getting very close,” Trump said.
The president was adamant that the Ukraine war could end within weeks, would not call Putin a dictator — a word he’s used to describe Ukraine’s leader — and reiterated his goal to visit Moscow at some point in the future.
A tense backdrop to Virtual G7 meeting
Even before Trump and Macron sat down for their formal talks, they had already spent more than two hours together for a virtual meeting of the Group of 7. Both beamed in from the Oval Office, Trump behind his desk and Macron next to him, for the call marking the third anniversary of the Ukraine war.
The G7 meeting came against a tense backdrop. Ahead of the talks, US officials had resisted inclusion of a reference to “Russian aggression” in a final leaders’ statement. Trump has also renewed his push to allow Russia to rejoin the group, reviving an argument he had in 2019 with Macron and other leaders at the summit the French president was hosting in Biarritz.
After Monday morning’s meeting, however, both men suggested the two-hour virtual summit went well. Departing the West Wing on foot, Macron called the talks “perfect.”
For the French leader, whose complicated history with Trump dates to 2017, Monday’s meetings were intended to employ what he believes is a unique rapport with the American president in order to advocate Ukraine and Europe’s case.
Macron said somewhat hopefully last week he thought Trump viewed him with high regard.
“He is someone I respect,” Macron said, “who I believe respects me.”
How much that matters in Monday’s talks wasn’t entirely clear.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump bemoaned what he said were lackluster efforts by both Macron and Starmer to end the war, insisting they “haven’t done anything,” despite significant contributions from both countries to Ukraine’s war effort.
Macron had already used his position to press Trump on support for Ukraine, arranging a surprise three-way meeting in Paris last December with himself, Trump and Zelensky around the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. Trump was respectful and “in listening mode” during the meeting, one official said, as Zelensky laid out the necessity of security guarantees for Ukraine once the war ends.
Macron tried explaining to Trump that Putin had changed since the US president was last in office. And he warned that if Ukraine was defeated, the US could look weak to its other rivals — namely, China.
Two months later, those talks do not appear to have left a lasting impression on Trump, who in the past week has lashed out at Zelensky and suggested it was Ukraine that started the war.
Starmer, who meets Trump on Thursday, is expected to brief his US counterpart on an emerging plan to deploy as many as 30,000 European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, hoping to demonstrate Europe’s commitment to shouldering more of the burden for the country’s security going forward. He may also reveal the date by which he wants the United Kingdom to raise defense spending to 2.5% of the GDP.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.