Trump and Macron display old friendship but split on war in Ukraine

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron put on a show of friendship Monday in their first meeting since last month’s inauguration, but for all the clubby hugs and handshakes they could not disguise the growing rift between the United States and Europe over the Ukraine war.

Meeting on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the two leaders seemed intent on avoiding an open rupture as they traded compliments during a convivial White House meeting. But they diverged significantly over the causes of the war, each side’s role in the conflict and its possible resolution.

The session came as the United States and France split sharply at the United Nations over a resolution condemning Russia’s aggression. While Europe and most of the world sided with Ukraine, the Trump administration dissented along with Russia, North Korea and Belarus, putting the United States in a camp that it has rarely, if ever, been in over the history of the United Nations.

The deepening divide was on display in capitals on both sides of the Atlantic. While the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and European Union buildings in Brussels were illuminated with the blue-and-yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag in solidarity, the White House made no effort to demonstrate support. While many world leaders made the trek to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, to stand with Ukrainian leaders, Trump focused on sealing a deal to claim the country’s natural resources as recompense for military aid.

“I think a lot of progress has been made,” Trump said of his efforts to negotiate peace with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We’ve had some very good talks with Russia. We’ve had some very good talks with others, and we’re trying to get the war ended with Russia and Ukraine.”

Trump also said he might go to Moscow if a peace deal were reached, which he predicted could happen within weeks. That would make him the first U.S. president to visit Russia in more than a decade and would be seen as a boon for Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes.

But even as Macron called the president “dear Donald” and repeatedly used words such as “friendship” and “shared agenda,” he gently and politely struck a different note from Trump’s on the war.

“This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine,” Macron said during a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House. “It must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees. This peace must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty.”

Trump made no mention of guarantees or Ukrainian sovereignty, refused to call Putin a dictator and falsely stated that the United States had spent three times as much on the war as Europe had. Macron, careful not to provoke Trump, made clear that Russia was to blame for the war, not Ukraine, and corrected Trump’s assertions about European aid.

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office before their news conference, Trump, who last week said Ukraine had “started” the war and called the country’s popularly elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator without elections,” declined to use the term for Putin, who has ruled as an autocrat for a quarter-century. “I don’t use those words lightly,” Trump said.

“We’re going to help Ukraine like we’ve never helped Ukraine before,” Trump added, sitting alongside Macron. “This has been a horrible, bloody mess, and we’ve got to get it solved. … It could lead to World War III if it’s not solved.”

Macron, by contrast, gave voice to the consensus view in Europe and, until now, in the United States that Russia is to blame for the war. “This is a responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia,” Macron said.

At one point, Trump repeated the false claim that the United States had spent $350 billion to aid Ukraine and “had nothing to show for it,” while Europe had spent only $100 billion. AIn fact, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Europe has allocated $138 billion to the war effort, compared with the $119 billion given by the United States.

Trump also mischaracterized the nature of European aid. “Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine,” he said. “They get their money back.”

Macron, who earlier in the meeting had been speaking in French through an interpreter, quickly interjected in English and put his hand on Trump’s arm to correct him.

“No, in fact, to be frank, we paid,” Macron said. As in the case of the United States, he said, there has been a mix of grants, loans and loan guarantees. “We provided real money, to be clear,” he said.

Trump, smiling, made a skeptical face and waved his hand as if to say that he did not buy it.

Trump, who failed to broker an end to the war in 24 hours or before his inauguration, as he had promised to do on the campaign trail, said that talks he had started with Putin could end the war “within weeks, if we’re smart.” He added, “If we’re not smart, it will keep going and we will lose young, beautiful people.”

Trump emphasized his demand that Ukraine sign over hundreds of billions of dollars in mineral rights to repay U.S. military aid, which Zelenskyy has resisted. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, however, said U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators were “very close” to a deal.