President Donald Trump opened up a meeting with European leaders by gushing about his political frenemy Emmanuel Macron of France.
Trump lauded Macron, who was seated to his right, on a day when he met with European leaders as well as Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky in an effort to try to bring the brutal war in Ukraine to an end.
‘Everyone knows President Macron of France,’ Trump said while going around a table in the East Room of the White House and providing generous introductions of European leaders who raced to Washington to buttress Zelensky in negotiations.
Trump called Macron ‘someone who’s been with me from the beginning.’ He called him ‘one of the first people I met as a foreign dignitary’ and said he ‘liked him from Day One.’
‘I like him even more now – that’s pretty good. That’s unusual,’ Trump said, underlining for effect, ‘That’s a pretty unusual thing.’
Trump’s comments certainly smoothed over the drama of their first encounter during his first term when the two presidents engaged in an epic viral handshake.
Trump was less complimentary about Macron while rushing back from the G7 summit in Canada in June, after Macron tried to explain the hasty exit by saying it had to do with a potential ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
‘Wrong! He is ‘publicity seeking’ and always gets it wrong,’ Trump posted later, days before dispatching U.S. bombers to hit Iranian nuclear sites.
After rolling out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska Friday, Trump talked up the attributes of many of the people seated around the rectangular table.
All were more traditional allies.
He called the UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer ‘our friend and my friend’ and said he was ‘doing really well.’
‘People like him a lot we all like him,’ Trump said, a few weeks after meeting him at his own Scottish golf course last month. He called Italy’s Giorgia Meloni ‘a really great leader and an inspiration.’
Turning to Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, Trump called the newish leader a ‘very strong person and a very strong leader and very highly respected in Germany,’ which may have been lesser praise.
One thing Trump didn’t mention was the evidently the new hair regimen being sported by his French ally.
Close-ups of the French president revealed a multi-colored hair palette including some brown on the top that spackled over any thin spots, as well as gray specks on his sideburns.
Trump was similarly upbeat about the appearance of a new entry to the table the president of Finland, Alexander Stubb.
After having trouble finding Stubb, who has golfed with the president at Mar-a-Lago, Trump told him: ‘You look better than I’ve ever seen you look.’
He told Stubb: ‘You’ve done a great job and we wanted to have you here because you’re somebody that we all respect.’
The Finnish president was the one male world leader to sport a double-breasted suit giving a group photograph antiquated look recalling peace deals and attempted peace deals to European conflicts from years past.
Trump also complimented Zelensky’s appearance while greeting the Ukrainian, who wore a jacket today, although not quite a suit and tie.
He drew scorn from Trump and Vice President JD Vance during the calamitous Oval Office meeting in February after being dressed casually.