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, for the invasion by the Kremlin three years ago.
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 — on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine — 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 against Kremlin aggression.
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.
Macron has had a long and complicated relationship with Trump, with their encounters during Trump’s first term marked by alpha displays of handshake vigor and mutual respect at times but also intense anger from Trump’s side. This time, Macron sought to preserve what he could of the transatlantic ties while also attempting to plan for a future in which the United States may no longer be a reliable partner for Europe against Russia.
“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.”
When Trump was asked whether he would call Russian President Vladimir Putin a “dictator,” as he had the democratically elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week — since the Russian leader has ruled his country with an iron grip for 25 years — he declined to, saying, “I don’t use those words lightly.”
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.
Europe has extended loans to Ukraine, but it has also given grants that exceed those offered by the United States, which Macron interrupted Trump to explain. Europeans say that they have used all available methods to speed as much help to Kyiv as possible, and that they don’t expect all the loans will be repaid.
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.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said in recent days that it opposes NATO troops on Ukrainian soil, but Trump said Putin told him that “he will accept them.”
Macron appeared to try to rope Trump into a public acknowledgment of a U.S. backstop for European security guarantees for Ukraine.
“We want peace swiftly, but we don’t want an agreement that is weak,” Macron said alongside Trump. “There are Europeans that are ready to engage, to provide for these security guarantees, and now there’s a clear American message that the U.S. as an ally is ready to provide that solidarity for that approach. That’s a turning point, in my view.”
The French leader added that based on his discussions with Trump on Monday, if Russia violated a peace agreement with Ukraine, then it would be “in conflict” with Europeans, and, seemingly, Washington.
“It would be in conflict with everyone who is engaged in the peace process. And that is a change. That was something we did not see in the past,” he said.
Trump made no comment about Macron’s summary of the discussions, neither affirming it nor contradicting the French leader.
But he appeared to take Putin’s word that Russia would agree to a permanent end to its war on Ukraine as part of any peace deal. Most European leaders do not share that view, fearing that a bad deal would make it possible for Russia to rearm and later reinvade Ukraine.
“I don’t think you’re going to need much backing” of security forces inside Ukraine, Trump said. “I think that’s not going to be a problem. Once an agreement is signed, Russia is going to get back to its business, and Ukraine and Europe are going to get back to their business. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”
Macron also offered a warning to Trump that Putin could not be trusted, saying that he had extensive conversations with Putin ahead of his Feb. 24, 2022, attack on Ukraine.
Putin “denied everything. But we didn’t have security guarantees,” Macron said. “This is why being strong and having deterrence capacities is the only way to be sure we will be respected.”
Ahead of the visit, Macron vowed that he would be able to convince Trump that aligning with Putin was not in the U.S. president’s own interests.
“I know him. I respect him and I believe he respects me,” Macron said of Trump in a live-streamed question-and-answer session on social media last week. “I’m going to tell him: ‘You cannot be weak in the face of President Putin. It’s not you. It’s not your trademark. It’s not in your interest. How can you then be credible in the face of China if you’re weak in the face of Putin?’ ”
Macron said Trump’s return to the White House created “uncertainty” that had U.S. allies worried, but it was also uncertainty for Putin that could be useful in negotiations to halt the conflict. “Trump creates uncertainty for others because he wants to make deals … so the Donald Trump who creates uncertainty for Vladimir Putin is a good thing,” he said.
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.
“To look at the messages that come from the United States, then it’s clear that the Russian narrative is … very strongly represented,” the chief E.U. diplomat, Kaja Kallas, told reporters in Brussels on Monday.
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.
Before his Washington trip, Macron spoke on the phone Sunday with European leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is set to meet Trump this week and will continue European talks with Washington about how to deal with Ukraine.
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.
The plan envisions a European force of under 30,000 troops that would not be stationed at any future front line but could help protect key sites and deter Russia from attempts to reignite a full-blown conflict. The troops could be backstopped by more forces outside Ukraine. The blueprint, which is being fleshed out, would draw on U.S. military capabilities including intelligence and help with air defenses.
Starmer has said a “U.S. backstop” to security guarantees would be necessary.
France and Britain have been at the forefront of quiet discussions on a potential postwar deployment to Ukraine for months, but European leaders had yet to formulate a definitive plan.
The European plans gained greater urgency this month as initial U.S.-Russia talks began, although differences among allies have persisted on the question of deploying troops to Ukraine in any future deal.
Francis reported from Brussels.
