Trump is building new boys network
PRESIDENT Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron are to hold a “lengthy lunch” in Brussels this month – a bonding exercise for two men the White House believes have much in common.
Senior US administration officials said that Mr Trump will break bread with Mr Macron on May 25 in Brussels and “compare perspectives”.
The White House believes the 39-year-old French centrist, who took office yesterday, and the 70-year-old US leader are not as uncomfortable allies as it may seem at first.
This despite suspicions that Mr Trump would have preferred far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to win the recent French election.
“They are two of the newest leaders to the stage,” a senior Trump administration official said, adding that a recent phone call between the two leaders went very well.
The official said Trump “was very impressed with Mr Macron”.
Mr Trump – who regularly gripes about getting insufficient credit for his November 2016 election victory – was impressed that Mr Macron won almost 50 per cent more votes than Ms Le Pen.
“It was clearly a very strong electoral win,” said the official, who asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive issues. While their ideology may differ, both Mr Trump and Mr Macron “come from outside traditional political lines”.
Mr Macron was the first candidate from outside the traditional political parties to win the French presidency in decades.
Mr Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, but has often shattered party orthodoxy.
The White House also believes the impression that Mr Trump supported Ms Le Pen is exaggerated, based only on “one tweet about borders” and Ms Le Pen’s visit to Trump Tower in January.
That visit was before the US billionaire took office.
In April Mr Trump tweeted in the wake of a deadly shooting on the Champs Elysees: “Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this.” Mr Trump also once remarked that Ms Le Pen had been the “strongest on borders and she’s the strongest on what’s going on in France”.
There may however be a point of contention on NATO spending. Mr Trump has been browbeating European governments to spend a higher portion of their GDP on collective defence. “It’s all about burden sharing,” the US official said. Both Mr Trump and Mr Macron will be in the Belgian capital for a meeting of NATO leaders before travelling to the G7 summit in Sicily.