Donald Trump mocked French President Emmanuel Macron, referring to the time when he was allegedly “slapped” by his wife, inside an aircraft. The clip circulated widely on social media, prompting speculation about the interaction between Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron.
During a private lunch on April 1, the POTUS dwelt on the same incident while talking about France, NATO allies, and tensions involving Iran. The clip of his statement also went viral on X (formerly Twitter). In the recording, Trump said, “I call up France, Macron – whose wife treats him extremely badly. Still recovering from the right to the jaw.”
According to The Straits Times, he continued, “Emmanuel, we’d love to have some help in the Gulf even though we’re setting records on knocking out bad people and knocking out ballistic missiles. We’d love to have some help. If you could, could you please send ships immediately?”
Trump mocks Macron again:
I called up France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly and he’s still recovering from the right to the jaw. pic.twitter.com/bEJgfKaVRg
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 1, 2026
Trump didn’t stop here. He then went ahead with mimicking Macron, recalling what his alleged response was: “No, no, no, we cannot do that, Donald. We can do that after the war is won.” The POTUS said that he then had to say, “No, no, I don’t need after the war is won, Emmanuel.”
The President then labeled NATO as a “paper tiger,” saying, “So I learned about NATO – NATO won’t be there if we ever have the big one, you know what I mean by the big one.”
For those unversed, the alleged “slapping” incident happened last May, when Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron arrived at an airport in Vietnam. The incident happened a moment before the pair exited the aircraft. Footage showed an arm, which was Brigitte’s, as she touched Macron’s face with some apparent force.
Emmanuel Macron explained the slap from his wife by saying, “we were just fooling around”
“We were bickering — or rather just fooling around — with my wife, but to my surprise, it turned into some kind of planetary catastrophe. People are saying all sorts of nonsense. Everyone… pic.twitter.com/ucSpfWI3LQ
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 26, 2025
The French President looked visibly shocked before he came out smiling and waving. As the clip went viral, many claimed that Brigitte actually slapped her husband.
However, Macron himself denied that it was anything more than a friendly banter between them. “My wife and I were squabbling, we were rather joking, and I was taken by surprise,” he stated, as per France 24.
“We are horsing around and, really, joking with my wife,” he added. Later, Macron’s office doubled down on the explanation. “It was a moment where the President and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around. It’s a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists,” the statement said.
