Bonhomie? It's over as Trump and Macron seek to defuse the tension

Trump's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran following its withdrawal from the multinational agreement to limit the country's nuclear program is a major point of contention. The French want to continue to do business with Iran and to resist the pressures of the Americans.

The Trump administration lifted the sanctions for eight countries, but France was not part of it. One of Macron's top advisers complained about the intimidation of Washington earlier this week. "Europe refuses to allow the United States to be responsible for the world's trade policy," said the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, at the Financial Times.

Both parties also disagree on broader trade issues. Mr Trump slapped steel and aluminum tariffs on Europe and other trading partners, and threatened to set tariffs on cars made in Europe. .

Trump said the negotiations to mitigate the tariff war were promising. "We have made a lot of progress," he said. "We'll see if we can get it over the line, as they say."

Trump remains deeply unpopular in Europe, particularly in France, where only 9% of those surveyed think he will do what is needed in international relations, according to the Pew research center. The president's seeming indifference to European sensitivities has been reinforced by an article in Le Monde, a French newspaper, according to which, in a meeting with Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian leaders earlier this year, Mr. Trump has confused the Baltic states with those of the Balkans and blamed them. for the war in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

M. Macron understands the importance of maintaining the relationship, said Karen Donfried, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. But "on the domestic front," she said, "it might be better for him if the power is visibly cooled."

Charles A. Kupchan, former adviser to Obama on Europe, said that Europe had practically given up on Mr. Trump and instead focused on developing his own "strategic autonomy" to make it less dependent on the United States.

"Trump could perhaps maintain a decent working relationship with populist governments in Italy, Poland and Hungary," he said. I said. "But the rest of Europe is resigned to running to the clock, hoping and praying that Trump will be a president with a mandate."