The French president, who has been named by some the “Trump whisperer”, also hinted that he’s confident the United States will soon return to the Paris climate agreement.
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French president Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump met for a joint press conference Tuesday as part of Macron’s state visit.
Before heading home, Macron acknowledged he expected Trump to pull out of the deal, based on his long opposition to it.
They shook hands, held hands and clasped hands, The Washington Post reported.
“In fact, I’ll get that little piece of dandruff off”, Trump said, brushing at Macron’s lapel.
But Macron’s speech underscored the very real differences he harbors with his USA counterpart.
In a separate speech at George Washington University on Wednesday, Macron said he shares Trump’s intention to withdraw troops from their respective countries once the mission to defeat IS in Syria is completed. The nuclear deal was the product of 13 years of diplomacy and is working, Iran having reduced its stock of enriched uranium by 95%.
“This agreement may not address all concerns”, Macron said.
“We can choose isolationism, withdrawal or nationalism”, Macron said in his first address to Congress since his election past year.
French President Emmanuel Macron drew on the shared history and “special bond” of U.S.
Trump has railed against the 2015 pact between Iran and six other national powers agreed to by the Obama administration. He also predicted that the US will implement “tough sanctions” following its departure from the deal.
His said: “Let us work together in order to make our planet great again and create new jobs and new opportunities while safeguarding our Earth”.
Macron said the effects of Carbon dioxide emissions and ocean pollution are killing the planet and disagreements on how to face the issues are short-term.
Trump said previous year that his country would withdraw from the accord, which aims to reduce damaging emissions and was signed by nearly 200 countries. Afterward, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said Macron’s call for global engagement was timely.
But that doesn’t mean Macron’s words fell on deaf ears.
Macron is on a three-day state visit, the first such formal event for a foreign leader in the Trump presidency, reflecting the affinity between the two leaders.
But in substance, Mr. Macron’s address illustrated the degree to which the warm personal rapport between the two presidents contrasts with the stark divides between them on vital questions of policy.
France, Great Britain and the United States acted together several weeks ago with airstrikes on military targets in Syria after the government there gassed its own people in an ongoing civil war. Macron said he plans to call Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, to discuss the next steps and a new round of diplomacy.
“Nobody knows what I’m going to do on the 12th, although Mr. President, you have a pretty good idea”, Trump said on Tuesday, addressing Macron.
Mr Macron said he believed he and Trump could overcome their differences with a new broader deal which would also restrict Iran’s regional influence and ballistic missile programme.
He said France remains committed to the bottom line goal of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. “Not now not in five years, not in 10 years, never”, he told lawmakers.
All other parties to the agreement support its continuation and say that Iran has kept its commitments and fully complied.
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Noah ended the segment with a mock black-and-white silent movie with a romantic soundtrack showing the Trump-Macron interactions which he called “L’affaire des Mains” – “The Affair of the Hands”. -French relations as he opened a joint meeting of Congress.
