French govt slams Trump for mocking Macron on Paris



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The French government sharply criticized President Donald Trump for mocking French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week on the three-year anniversary of the Paris terror attacks.

Relations between Washington and Paris deteriorated as Trump on Tuesday mocked France's World War II record, Macron's approval rating, France's unemployment rate, and accused the country's wine industry of unfair trade practices.

"MAKE FRANCE GREAT AGAIN!" the US president tweeted.

Trump launches into tirade against the French leader

President Donald Trump's relationship with Macron has
Vincent Kessler / Reuters

Trump's tweetstorm as came as Paris commemorated the three-year anniversary of deadly terror attacks in Paris, perpetrated in the name of the Islamic State, that killed 130 victims.

Benjamin Griveaux, spokesperson for the French government, sharply criticized Trump's comments on Wednesday. He said, according to Reuters: "Yesterday was November 13, we were marking the murder of 130 of our people, so I would reply in English: 'Common decency' would have been appropriate."

Macron himself issued on a more subdued rebuke on Wednesday.

He dismissed Trump's comments to an attempt to drum up support after Republican losses in the midterm elections, telling TF1 television according to Reuters: "I think he's playing politics, and I let him play American politics."

The French President is also a member of the European Union. NATO – an idea Trump called "very insulting" – by saying that "being an ally" of the US "does not mean being a vbadal state. "

Read more : Macron's 'real European army' sounds like a 'nonsense' force that would never deploy

Trump puts Macron in Paris over the weekend
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
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Trump did not wait for a key event marking 100 years since the end of World War I in Paris this Sunday, blaming the weather at the time. The White House later said it did not want to send the presidential motorcade because it would have disrupted traffic.

Macron also delivered a thinly-veiled rebuke of Trump's politics, saying in a Sunday speech that nationalism – which Trump embraces – "is a betrayal of patriotism."

Trump previously touted a warm relationship with Macron, having called the French president a "great guy" and a "friend of mine," complete with intense handshakes and even blow-drying from Macron's shoulder in the Oval Office.

Trump made to brush off a piece of dandruff off Macron's shoulder during a meeting in the White House in April
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

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