Trump says ‘we’ve had a lot of problems’ with France
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US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron have had a sometimes tetchy “bromance”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump took a sudden swipe at France on Nov 10 during an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, saying that “we’ve had a lot of problems with the French”.
Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham had questioned Mr Trump on the enrolment of Chinese students at American universities, saying, “they’re not the French, they’re the Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our intellectual property”.
But the US leader abruptly cut in to respond, saying: “Do you think the French are better, really? I will tell you, I’m not so sure.”
Mr Trump, who has been locked in a trade war with Beijing, has had a well-catalogued hands-on relationship with his French counterpart, Mr Emmanuel Macron, full of muscular handshakes, mutual backslapping and knee-touching for the cameras.
Mr Macron in September even rang Mr Trump directly to tell him that he was being blocked on the street by the presidential convoy in New York as he rushed to a meeting from the UN headquarters.
But the pair’s bromance has occasionally been tetchy, with Mr Trump notably opposed to Mr Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state and his climate policy.
Mr Trump has also pushed Europe to step up funding of its own defence through Nato, with Mr Macron part of the continent’s multi-pronged charm offensive to keep Mr Trump onside with military support of Ukraine against Russia.
In the Fox interview, Mr Trump switched focus from China to France’s taxation policies, which he said were an issue for the US.
“We’ve had a lot of problems with the French where we get taxed unfairly on our technology,” he said.
Mr Trump has previously said he would impose “substantial” extra tariffs on countries that introduced “discriminatory” digital taxes.
The comments were sparked by Ms Ingraham grilling Mr Trump on his administration’s back-and-forth on foreign students.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that Washington would “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students”.
But just a few months later, Mr Trump said the country would allow 600,000 Chinese students to “come in”. AFP