There were strong, masculine handshakes, slaps on the thigh, and a few shared chuckles that were seemingly captured on camera. When Emmanuel Macron encountered Donald Trump in Washington on February 24, it was evident that the French president held a diplomatic edge that his European colleagues did not possess as he attempted to stave off a significant geopolitical crisis. As the initial head of state from the European Union to visit the United States, Macron understood, or believed he understood, the American billionaire. “I know him (…). He’s someone I respect and who, I believe, respects me, and I find it easy to talk to him,” stated the French president a few days prior to their discussion in the Oval Office, posted on his social media.
Macron had met the former real estate mogul several times during his first term and regularly communicated with him by phone. “Advise the head of state to always start his comments with a compliment for Donald Trump,” suggested a White House aide to a French diplomat ahead of one of these calls, hoping to put the volatile and unpredictable American president in a cheerful mood.
The Trump of 2025 is not the same as the Trump of 2017. The assault on the Capitol by activists he incited in 2021 revealed what he was capable of. He might have referred to the French president as “a very special man,” reminiscing with gleaming eyes about their 2017 dinner at Jules Verne, the restaurant located on the Eiffel Tower, but in terms of substance, he yielded nothing.
Did Macron have even the slightest possibility of persuading Trump to stand with Ukraine’s allies? Was the “special relationship” that the Frenchman had cultivated with the American president truly an advantage? “Diplomacy hinges on personal relationships, and Emmanuel Macron had no false hopes,” remarked Gérard Araud, former French ambassador to the US. Described as an “absolute seducer” by the ex-diplomat, the French president is adept at “man-to-man” diplomacy, where the emotional element is key. In a somewhat isolated endeavor, Macron strives to flatter or impress the “strong men” on the global stage. In July 2017, he hosted Trump at the Champs-Elysées for the Bastille Day military parade, after hosting Vladimir Putin at Versailles in May. This is a language – perhaps the only one? – that resonates with the American president.
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