United States President Donald Trump has taken a swipe at French president, Emmanuel Macron and his wife during a private lunch Wednesday, as he lambasted NATO allies for not joining the war against Iran that has roiled the Middle East.
“We didn’t need them, but I asked anyway,” Trump said at a private lunch, in a video posted briefly on the White House YouTube channel before access was blocked.
“I call up France, Macron — whose wife treats him extremely badly. Still recovering from the right to the jaw,” Trump said.
Trump made reference to a TV footage from May 2025 that purportedly showed Brigitte Macron pushing the French president’s face during a trip to Vietnam. Macron later denied the footage as part of a disinformation attempt.
“And I said, ‘Emmanuel, we’d love to have some help in the Gulf even though we’re setting records on knocking out bad people and knocking out ballistic missiles. We’d love to have some help. If you could, could you please send ships immediately,’” Trump continued.
He then mimics a French accent to give Macron’s alleged answer: “‘No no no, we cannot do that, Donald. We can do that after the war is won,’” he said.
“I said, ‘No no, I don’t need after the war is won Emmanuel,’” Trump said.
“So I learned about NATO — NATO won’t be there if we ever have the big one, you know what I mean by the big one,” Trump said, without elaborating.
Additionally, he called NATO a “paper tiger,” which is the most recent attack on the transatlantic alliance by Trump and his top officials since he took office again last year.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Tuesday that after the battle against Iran is over, the US “is going to have to re-examine” its relationship with NATO.
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