WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump took a sudden swipe at France on Monday during an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, saying “we’ve had a lot of problems with the French.”

Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham questioned the US president on the enrolment of Chinese students at US universities, saying, “They’re not the French, they’re the Chinese. They spy on us.’’

Trump abruptly cut in to respond, saying: “Do you think the French are better, really? I will tell you, I’m not so sure.” Trump, who has been locked in a trade war with Beijing, has had a well-catalogued hands-on relationship with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, full of muscular handshakes, mutual backslapping, and knee-touching for the cameras.

Macron even rang the US leader directly in September to inform 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 Trump notably opposed to Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state and climate policy.

The US leader has also pushed Europe to step up funding of its own defence through Nato, with Macron part of the continent’s multi-pronged charm offensive to keep Trump onside with military support of Ukraine against Russia.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2025