Macron to warn Trump against looking weak to Putin Jacqueline Howard
Macron to warn Trump against looking weak to Putin French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to meet with Donald Trump in Washington later today, their first one-on-one encounter since the US president returned to the White House.
In a social media Q&A, Macron warned Trump not to seem weak in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It comes after the United States conducted direct negotiations with Russia for the first time since Moscow’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine.
He is also scheduled to deliver European recommendations for achieving peace in Ukraine, after the US president accused him of “doing nothing” on the issue.
The gathering is held on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Other European leaders have visited Kyiv to offer their solidarity.
On Thursday, Macron warned a social media audience that Trump should consider how his dealings with Putin would seem to other international leaders.
“It’s not you, it’s not your trademark, and it doesn’t serve your best interests. How can you be credible in front of China if you are ineffective in front of Putin?” Macron stated.
He went on to say that he would try to persuade Trump that the interests of the United States and Europe were the same, and that “if you let Russia take over Ukraine, it would be unstoppable”.
Macron stated that any peace settlement must be discussed with Ukrainians and Europeans at the same table.
According to Sebastien Maillard of the Chatham House think tank, Macron’s deliberate appeal to the US president’s ego stems from his familiarity with Trump during the latter’s first time in office.
“Macron is trying to touch on what could be more emotion than on pure rational arguments,” according to Maillard.
Trump wants to pose as a powerful leader who rapidly reached a peace agreement, so Macron’s plan “is to demonstrate to Trump how weak he would look, he would not be the strong man he wants to be”.
“If he treats Putin too kindly he will not be respected by China, Iran or other enemies.”
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‘A Last Chance Mission for Europe.’
More broadly, Mr Maillard believes Macron’s visit will be a combination of time-buying for Europe and fact-finding.
“This is a last chance mission because Europe senses that things are hurrying up – they are afraid that this could be done too quickly and badly,” Maillard told reporters.
He went on to say that the international community was “bewildered” by the “new Putin-Trump axis” and that “Macron wants to understand what the future of NATO is.”
“So that he is not taken by surprise at the next speech or next tweet,” Mr Maillard added.
According to AFP, an advisor to Macron’s office stated that the French president will use the meeting to make “proposals for action that reflect the convergences that emerged.”
Those convergences point to Washington’s rapid shift in policy toward direct engagement with Russia.
Within a month after retaking the White House, Trump called Putin and dispatched a group of US officials to Saudi Arabia to meet with their Russian counterparts.
These discussions culminated in an agreement to form teams from both countries to begin negotiating the end of the conflict.
Russia also stated that it would not accept peacekeeping soldiers from NATO nations in Ukraine as part of any peace settlement, a request made a day earlier during a summit of European NATO members in Paris called hastily by Macron.
Macron’s meeting with Trump comes ahead of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s own visit, which is scheduled for Thursday.
Starmer, like the French leader, has been accused by Trump of doing little to halt the war. The UK leader also reacted to Trump’s accusation that Zelensky was a “dictator” by stating that he was his country’s “democratically elected leader”.
Both Macron and Starmer would want to show a unified front to Trump in order to persuade him not to make choices regarding Ukrainian and European security without European involvement, according to Mr Maillard.
