Trump trolls Macron over wife's 'slap' in viral video
Donald Trump mocks Emmanuel Macron's marriage, saying his wife treats him "extremely badly," amid tensions over the Iran war and NATO disputes.
U.S. President Donald Trump has sparked outrage in France by publicly mocking French leader Emmanuel Macron's relationship with his wife, Brigitte. During a private White House lunch on Wednesday, the feed of which may have been accidentally posted online, Trump criticized France's refusal to join the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran before stating that Brigitte Macron treats her husband "extremely badly" and claiming the French president is "still recovering from the right to the jaw." The quip references a widely circulated May 2025 video that appeared to show Brigitte pushing her husband's face aboard a plane after landing in Hanoi, an incident Macron later dismissed as the couple "bickering and joking."
Trump's comments, which drew laughter from the audience at the White House, were vehemently condemned in France. Macron told reporters the remarks were "neither elegant nor appropriate" and did not "deserve a response." French politicians across party lines also denounced Trump for ridiculing a fellow head of state. National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet called the words "beneath contempt," while Manuel Bompard of the far-left France Unbowed party said that despite his differences with Macron, he could not tolerate Trump speaking about the president and his wife in that manner.
The public mockery comes amid a growing rift between Washington and European NATO states over the Iran war. Several nations have refused to participate in offensive operations, and France, Spain, and Italy have gone further by restricting U.S. access to their airspace or military bases for anti-Iran operations. Trump has responded by branding NATO a "paper tiger" and threatening to pull the U.S. out of the bloc, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio signaling that Washington may "re-examine" its NATO membership after the war.
Trump's mockery of Macron occurs against a backdrop of scandals surrounding Brigitte Macron. In January, a Paris court convicted ten people for online harassment over false conspiracy theories claiming the French first lady is transgender. Separately, in December, she sparked controversy by referring to feminist protesters as "stupid b***hes" in a leaked backstage video, prompting criticism from activists and politicians.