Macron the ‘Trump whisperer’ works his magic but US and Europe remain an ocean apart | Emmanuel Macron

It was a delicate balancing act for the man once considered Europe’s “Trump whisperer”.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was seated in the Oval Office gently trying to factcheck Donald Trump in real time as the US president pushed a narrative that Ukraine had taken advantage of US support during its defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Now, said Trump, it is time to get paid back.

“This war cost all of us a lot of money,” said Macron as a scowling Trump looked on. “And this is the responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia.”

Trump broke in. “Just so you understand, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine,” he said. “They get their money back.”

“No,” Macron placed his hand gently on Trump’s wrist. “To be frank, we paid 60% of the total effort… we provided real money to be clear.”

For much of today’s summit with Trump, Macron sought to provide a master class in how to manage a belligerent friend. He praised Trump for his leadership. He clapped him on the back and smiled as the two acted like old friends outside of the White House. In an interview with Fox News, Trump’s beloved television station, Macron called his election a “game-changer” and said that his initiative was a “positive one.”

But he also held firm, resisting Trump’s efforts to physically dominate him, and he maintained that Russia was responsible for the war. That is a simple truth that has suddenly disappeared from the mouths of Trump’s advisers as the US president abruptly began negotiations with Russia and delivered Ukraine an ultimatum in the form of a punishing “rare earth metals deal”. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that signing it would force his people to pay the US back for “ten generations.”

It is not clear that any relationship, even one with such evident bonhomie as that between Macron and Trump, can bridge the chasm growing between the United States and Europe.

Macron and Keir Starmer, who is set to come to Washington later this week, are trying to salvage a trans-Atlantic alliance under its greatest strain in generations. They argue that US support for European defence is a sound investment, and that Trump must not achieve peace by simply throwing Ukraine under the bus.

But Trump has also held them responsible for failing to negotiate a peace between Ukraine and Russia.

“They didn’t do anything either” to end the war, he said during an interview with Fox Business earlier this week. “The war’s going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing… They haven’t done anything. Macron is a friend of mine, and I’ve met with the Prime Minister and he’s a very nice guy… [but] nobody’s done anything.”

The US president’s turn towards a closer relationship with Vladimir Putin has created a strain that was evident on Monday at the United Nations as the US tried to scuttle a joint resolution from the European Union and Ukraine that condemned Russia three years after Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It passed with the US and Russia both voting against the resolution.

Others in Europe are running out of patience. In Germany, Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and likely Germany’s next chancellor, said in an interview over the the weekend that his “absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.”

“I would never have believed that I would have to say something like that on television,” he said. “But at the very least, after Donald Trump’s statements last week, it is clear that the Americans – at least this part of the Americans in this administration – are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.”

Macron leaves Washington without a firm promise of US support or a clear change in Trump’s stance on the war in Ukraine.

Starmer will also have his work cut out for him when he meets with Trump on Thursday. He too will try to coax the US president away from the brink of a split with Europe.

“We don’t want to rile Trump, that would be totally counterproductive both to our interests and those of Ukrainian and European security,” one aide told the Guardian. “We’re much more interested in what he actually does, rather than what he says. So far, we think there’s a difference.”