French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wasn’t offended by a slew of angry tweets directed at him earlier this week by Donald Trump, saying that he understood the US president was just playing to a domestic audience.
Macron, who was speaking to reporters on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, said that respect was due between the US and France, two long-time allies, recalling that France was at America’s side during its fight for independence — something which many on Twitter also tried to remind Trump after he mocked French losses during both world wars.
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“At every moment of our history, we were allies, so between allies, respect is due,” Macron said. Asked about Trump’s tweets, the French president said: “I think he’s playing politics, and I let him play politics.”
Macron also said that being an American ally does not mean being a “vassal” state. “The United States are our historic ally and will continue to be. It’s the ally with which we take all the risks, with which we carry out the most complicated operations. But being an ally doesn’t mean being a vassal state,” he said.
Macron’s comments stand in contrast to an earlier statement on Wednesday from a French government spokesperson who complained that Trump should have shown “common decency” toward France, given that his tweets came on the third anniversary of deadly terror attacks in Paris.
Trump posted five tweets on Tuesday in which he mocked French losses during the two world wars and said the French president had “a very low approval rating in France.”
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