WASHINGTON — They joked, they held hands, they hugged — but they didn’t see eye to eye on Ukraine.
The bromance between Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump was back on display in the White House on Monday, with the two leaders reminiscing about the reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris and shared dinners at the Eiffel Tower.
Macron showered Trump with compliments, calling him “a game changer” and “Dear Donald,” while the American hailed their “very special relationship.”
But the pleasantries hardly papered over the gulf that separates the U.S. president from his French counterpart.
Trump didn’t call Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” during Macron’s lightning visit to Washington — but he also refused to call Vladimir Putin one. While the French president argued for solid security guarantees to backstop any peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, Trump said Europe “wouldn’t need much backing” on Ukraine.
During Trump’s first term, much was written about the push-pull relationship between the two presidents, the lengthy knuckle-crunching handshakes and Macron’s needling of the American on climate change and trade.
But Trump’s pivot toward Russia is a challenge unlike any other, as Europe wakes up to the reality that the U.S. administration could be disengaging from the continent.
On Monday, Macron managed to convey Europe’s warnings on Putin and express his full support for Ukraine without offending Trump, earning plaudits from observers.
Former British spin doctor Alastair Campbell wrote on X that Macron’s performance was “very well played,” maintaining a “balancing act” between “ego-stroking” and “serious policy.” Meanwhile, former French Ambassador to the U.S. Gérard Araud, who has been critical of Macron, said the French president “confirmed his good relations with Trump.”
The visit to Washington may even inject some hope that the transatlantic relationship has some life left in it, with Trump saying NATO was “a good thing if used properly.”
But it’s unlikely such half-hearted platitudes will reassure the likes of Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday that his “absolute priority” would be to “strengthen Europe” and “achieve independence” from the U.S.
A deal for Ukraine?
When the dust settles from Macron’s trip to Washington, which is to be followed by a visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, there’ll be only one yardstick for success — what they achieved for Ukraine.
For now, the answer to that question isn’t clear.
Per the French president, Trump and Macron made progress, sketching a pathway toward a negotiated peace deal with Russia that would involve strong security guarantees in the form of European troops deployed to Ukraine, with the U.S. armed forces acting as a deterrent.
But exactly what and how the U.S. would be involved is uncertain. In an interview with Fox News after their meeting, Macron said Trump “spoke clearly” about a U.S. backstop. But earlier, Trump sounded much less committed, talking vaguely about a “backing of some kind.”
For Macron, the key to unlocking U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine is for Washington to have skin in the game — enter Trump’s demands for a rare earth minerals deal.
“First we need to have a truce … and during that time, we can negotiate security guarantees, and the U.S. will have a deal on minerals, which is one of the best ways to have the U.S. committed,” Macron told Fox News.
The question is whether that’ll be enough to ensure Ukraine’s territorial integrity, given Trump’s turn toward Putin.
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