French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump was undermining NATO by creating “daily doubt about his commitment” to the north Atlantic alliance.
“If you create daily doubt about your commitment, you hollow it out,” Macron said during a state visit to Seoul, adding that there is “too much talk … going off in all directions.”
In a newspaper interview on Wednesday, Trump said that he is considering pulling his country out of NATO, slamming the defence alliance as a “paper tiger”.
Trump has repeatedly railed against Western partners for not responding to his call to assemble a naval force to help reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz, which has effectively been closed by Tehran as the Iran war grinds on.
Macron said that a military operation to liberate the Strait of Hormuz is “unrealistic”.
“There are those who advocate for the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz by force through a military operation, a position sometimes expressed by the United States,” Macron said.
“It is unrealistic because it would take an inordinate amount of time and would expose anyone crossing the strait to coastal threats from the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards, who possess significant resources, as well as ballistic missiles, (and) a host of other risks,” he added.
“This can only be done in concert with Iran. So, first and foremost, there must be a ceasefire and a resumption of negotiations.”
The Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil, has been virtually paralysed for weeks by the Iran war.
Macron accused Trump of sowing confusion by constantly contradicting himself on the conflict.
“You have to be serious. When you want to be serious, you don’t say the opposite every day of what you said the day before. And perhaps you shouldn’t talk every day,” Macron said.
Macron also said that Trump’s comments about his marriage were “neither elegant nor up to standard.”
On Wednesday, Trump claimed that Macron’s wife, Brigitte, “treats him extremely badly.”
“Still recovering from the right to the jaw,” Trump said.
The US president was referring to a May 2025 news video that appeared to show Brigitte Macron shoving the French president’s face on a trip to Vietnam, which Macron later rejected as part of a disinformation campaign.
At the time Macron denied any “domestic dispute” with his wife, saying that they were “joking as we often do.”
Trump’s comments about the French president’s marriage sparked outrage in France, with politicians, including a Macron critic, angry about the comments.
“Honestly, it’s not up to par,” said Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of France’s lower house of parliament.
“We are currently discussing the future of the world. Right now in Iran, this is having consequences for the lives of millions of people, people are dying on the battlefield and we have a president who is laughing, who is mocking others,” she told Franceinfo.
Manuel Bompard, coordinator of the hard-left France Unbowed party, came to Macron’s defence.
“You are aware of the extent of my disagreements with the president, but for Donald Trump to speak to him like that and to speak of his wife in such a manner, I find that absolutely unacceptable,” Bompard told broadcaster BFMTV.
Additional sources • AFP
