President Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France diverged on the Ukraine war on Monday as the visiting European leader contradicted the American president over who was responsible for the Russian invasion and how much the allies are doing to help Ukraine.
While trading compliments and friendly gestures during a convivial White House meeting, Mr. Trump and Mr. Macron’s polite exchange exposed the deepening divide between the United States and Europe as the newly restored American president seeks to broker a peace deal with Russia.
Meeting on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Trump refused to call President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a dictator and falsely stated that the United States had spent three times more on the war than Europe has. Mr. Macron treaded gently, but he made clear that Russia was to blame for the war, not Ukraine, and corrected Mr. Trump’s assertions about European aid.
Mr. Trump also said he might go to Moscow if a peace deal is reached, which he predicted could happen within weeks. That would make him the first American president to visit Russia in more than a decade and would be seen as a boon for Mr. Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes.
The session came at a time of growing tension over the future of the Atlantic alliance and peace talks with Russia that have sidelined Ukrainian and European leaders. Mr. Macron has rallied European leaders to formulate a strategy as the United States appears to be shifting favor from Europe to Russia, then he rushed to Washington to meet personally with Mr. Trump.
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump, who last week said that Ukraine “started” the war and that Mr. Zelensky is a “dictator without elections,” declined to use the term for Mr. Putin. “I don’t use those words lightly,” Mr. Trump said.
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