A feud between the Trump administration and the Associated Press over the agency’s refusal to recognise the “Gulf of America” has resulted in its reporters being barred from White House briefings.
On Monday, a US-based AP reporter was again blocked from the press conference with President Macron, but a France-based reporter was allowed to enter.
The travelling press corps collectively agreed that the AP reporter should get to ask the first question among the French-based reporters. The reporter asked both leaders about their efforts to secure a lasting peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
Last week, the AP sued three Trump administration officials over the ban, claiming that it was a violation of the First Amendment’s freedom of the press protections.
The US government has since disclosed in legal filings that Trump personally ordered the restrictions.
While Macron and Trump put on a unified front in Washington DC on Monday, Sir Keir Starmer was delivering a strong condemnation of Russia’s “barbaric” invasion in a message to world leaders gathered in Kyiv on the third anniversary of the war.
The prime minister will get his chance to press British interests when he travels to Washington DC for his first bilateral meeting with the US president on Thursday. Adopting the flattery that allies often use to court the US president, Starmer said that President Trump’s efforts to begin peace plan negotiations with Russia had “created an opportunity”.
However, he added that “Ukraine must have a seat” at the negotiation table.
Starmer has already pledged to increase the UK’s spending on defence to 2.5 per cent of GDP, and said that British forces stand ready to contribute to a European peacekeeping force. However, navigating the new parameters of the so-called special relationship will require deft diplomatic skills.
In late January, Trump said that he liked Starmer “a lot” in remarks aboard Air Force One. “He’s liberal, which is a bit different from me, but I think he’s a very good person and I think he’s done a very good job thus far,” Trump said.
President Putin during a TV interview at his residence on Monday
REUTERS/SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL METZEL
President Putin of Russia said he has not discussed resolving the conflict in Ukraine in detail with Trump.
In remarks on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, Putin said that European countries could be involved in a peace settlement.
But he appeared to push back on an earlier statement by Trump that the two men had spoken at length about how a ceasefire deal might be crafted. Earlier, during his meeting with Macron, the US president said he had “specifically asked” Putin whether he would accept European peacekeepers.
“He has no problem with it,” Trump said.
During his earlier remarks, Trump said that US tariffs on imported goods from Mexico and Canada would go into effect when a month-long pause expires next week.
“The tariffs are going forward on time, on schedule,” Trump said when asked by reporters.
The US has been locked in talks with its two closest neighbours about reducing the flow of illegal migrants and drugs over the borders. Both Canada and Mexico agreed to Trump’s ultimatum to step up border security efforts in response.
On February 3, Trump agreed to delay the tariffs for 30 days.
Trump also indicated that other nations would face his planned “reciprocal” tariffs, but did not provide further details.
The leaders embrace at the end of the press conference on Monday afternoon
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
The two leaders conclude their roughly 40-minute press conference with a characteristic handshake-turned-arm grapple and some mutual backslapping.
In his closing remarks, Macron said the meeting had been a “turning point in our discussions” as they sought to find a lasting peace in Ukraine.
Trump added that Macron had been doing a “tremendous job”, and gave a special mention to his “beautiful wife” Brigitte.
Trump effusively praised Macron for overseeing the rebuilding of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
The US president and successful real-estate developer said that Macron had not received sufficient credit for the project, adding that he knew the difference between “good construction” and “bad construction”.
A French reporter also noted that US donors had contributed significant amounts to the $1 billion reconstruction project.
“Thank you, Donald,” Macron replied, before quickly pivoting back to Ukrainian security arrangements.
Macron addressed the looming transatlantic trade war, saying that he wanted to see fair trade between the world’s two largest trading partners.
The French president said he had spoken with Trump about “fair competition” in trade, a commitment meant to stave off the threat of tariffs.
“We want to make a sincere commitment towards a fair competition where we have smooth trade and more investments,” Macron said, according to a translation of his French remarks.
“We want to have more prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Macron said that he had stopped speaking to Putin after the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha in the first weeks of the invasion.
The French president added that there was now a “big chance” after Trump’s election to foster cordial relations with Putin once again. He said this could only happen with “verifiable” security commitments from Russia.
“We admire greatly the courage of the Ukrainian people,” he added. “I think that no one in this room wants to live in a world where it’s the law of the strongest.”
Macron said that Europe understood the need to “more fairly share the security burden”, a burden that the US has largely taken responsibility for since the Second World War.
“Everyone in Europe is now clear that it is our duty as Europeans,” Macron added.
This has been a point that Trump has been pushing for weeks. Trump has sought to put pressure on other members of the Nato transatlantic alliance to spend 5 per cent of their gross domestic product on defence.
President Macron is a very special man in my book, says Trump
Macron lauded the long shared friendship between the two countries dating back to the US Revolutionary War, and thanked Trump for changing his schedule to accommodate today’s meeting.
“I think we have made very substantive steps forward during our discussions, and this is a major step forward today,” the French leader told Trump.
“Over the past few hours, we’ve been able to see a few things take shape.”
He stressed that any ceasefire deal would need to address reconstruction, and Ukraine’s territories and security guarantees.
“It must not mean a surrender of Ukraine,” he said.
Trump has blamed the Biden administration’s “reckless foreign policy” for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He has once again exaggerated US aid to Ukraine, falsely claiming that America had spent $350 billion while Europe had spent $100 billion.
According to independent estimates, Europe has invested about $138 billion while the US has put in $119 billion to the Ukrainian war effort.
After their earlier comments to the press from the Oval Office earlier, Trump and Macron have finished their private meeting and are now holding a press conference.
Trump thanked Macron for the invitation to the 75th anniversary of the D-Day in 2019.
“The purpose of our meeting today is to end another war,” Trump said. “I think we’re going to do it.”
He said his meeting with Macron was “another positive step forward” in ending the three-year war.
President Macron said that France was prepared to give Ukraine security guarantees, including peacekeepers, once a ceasefire has been reached in the three-year conflict.
Speaking through a translator, Macron said that French soldiers “would not be along the front lines, they would not be part of any conflict”.
“They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected,” he said.
The French leader added that both he and Trump wanted a “solid, long-lasting peace,” and that Europe was ready to “step up” defense spending to ensure it was viable.
He said he wanted strong US involvement in any peacekeeping arrangement.
While meeting Macron at the White House, Trump seemed enthusiastic about the prospect of deploying a European peacekeeping force to ensure that both Ukraine and Russia abide by a peace deal.
“I think that’ll be a very good day when we can go in as peacekeepers, as opposed to what’s going on right now with everybody being killed,” Trump told reporters.
When asked if he could convince Putin to accept the peacekeepers, Trump said, “yeah, he will accept that”.
“Look, if we do this deal, he’s not looking for more war. He doesn’t mind,” Trump added. “But I’ve specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it.”
President Trump sent his best wishes to Pope Francis, who remains in a critical condition in hospital in Rome.
“It’s a very serious situation,” Trump said during remarks alongside President Macron. “We do want him to get well if that’s possible.”
Macron added that he also wished the pontiff a recovery.
The Vatican said Pope Francis had resumed light work activities from his hospital bed on Monday. He was admitted to hospital on February 14 after being diagnosed with pneumonia in both his lungs.
Macron has talked up his relationship with Trump, saying they were “personal friends” who “work very well together”.
But the two leaders had a minor disagreement in front of cameras when Trump claimed that Europe was only “loaning” money to Ukraine and would be reimbursed in full.
The French president disputed his claim, saying: “To be frank, we paid 60 per cent of the total effort, and it was through — like the US — loans, guarantees, grants. We provided real money, to be clear.”
Trump remained unconvinced, replying sceptically: “If you believe that, it’s OK with me.”
President Macron said that “American credibility” was on the line when asked about Trump’s recent overtures to Putin in the Oval Office.
“We do share the objective of peace but we are very aware of the necessity of guarantees to have a solid peace,” Macron said. Macron and other European leaders have voiced concerns that the US peace talks with Russia would sideline both Ukraine and the European Union.
He insisted that any peace deal would have to contain long-lasting security guarantees for Ukraine, and said that France had its “role to play” and may agree to send in peacekeeping troops.
Asked by a reporter if Ukraine could take back the territories it has lost to Russia, Trump replied: “That’s not an easy thing to do.”
“Perhaps some of it, yeah, I hope so. But that’s not an easy thing to do,” he said. “It’s going to be something we’re talking about.”
Trump says EU peacekeeping troops may go into Ukraine
Trump said that Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
“Yeah, he will accept it,” Trump said in comments before his meeting with President Macron. “I have asked him that question. Look — if we do this deal, he’s not looking for world war.”
Sir Keir Starmer has offered to deploy British troops as a “peacekeeping” force to Ukraine, while Macron has argued for more than a year that European soldiers would need to enforce any potential peace deal.
President Trump has said that Zelensky could come to Washington DC soon to sign an agreement for the US to access Ukraine’s rare-mineral deposits.
The US is pushing Ukraine to agree to a deal to mine its lithium and titanium deposits in return for support for the war effort. Trump said a deal there was close, and suggested a broader agreement to end the war could come “within weeks”.
Trump demurred when asked whether he would call President Putin a dictator, after describing Zelensky as one last week.
“I don’t use those words lightly,” he said.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of betraying Ukraine after it voted against a UN resolution condemning Russian aggression and demanding the immediate withdrawal of its forces.
“Today, the US stood with Russia and North Korea — and against our allies — in voting against a UN resolution to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” Chris Van Hollen, a senator from Maryland, wrote in a post on X.
“This is a betrayal of the Ukrainian people, our allies, our interests and those who aspire for freedom.”
Mark Kelly, a senator from Arizona, said that the US vote was inexplicable. “What would Ronald Reagan think of this? I think I know,” he wrote.
The resolution proposed by Ukraine called for a “comprehensive, lasting and just peace” and for accountability for war crimes committed by Russian forces. It passed by 93 votes to 18, with 65 countries abstaining.
Trump warned that failure to reach a lasting peace agreement in Ukraine could lead to a third world war in remarks from the Oval Office a few minutes ago.
“On a humanitarian basis, we have to get this very, very bloody, savage problem solved,” Trump said while sitting next to the French president.
“I will say this also: it could lead to World War Three if it’s not solved. There’ll be a point at which it’s not going to stop at those two countries. Already there’s such involvement from other countries. It could really lead to a very big war, World War Three, and we’re not going to let that happen either,” he said.
Trump added that there would have been “zero chance” of a peace deal if it were not for his election.
“My function is to get … them out of the war. Let them live. It’s a bloody war, it’s a horrible war, thousands of people are getting killed every week,” he said.
“This has been a horrible, bloody mess and we’re going to get it solved.”
President Trump greeted President Macron outside the White House a short time ago before their meeting on Monday.
The two leaders exchanged a brief — by their standards — handshake, before clasping each other’s shoulders in a hug and turning to smile broadly for the cameras.
The two leaders then posed for photographs in the Oval Office before their bilateral meeting, the first of the president’s second term with a European leader.
Presidents Macron and Trump are meeting in the Oval Office after the US voted down Ukraine’s resolution against Russia
JIM WATSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The US was among 18 countries which voted against the Ukraine-backed resolution condemning Russia’s actions.
They joined Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Israel, Nicaragua, Hungary, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Niger, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Mali, the Marshall Islands, Haiti, Palau and Sudan.
Among the 65 countries who abstained were Iran, China and the United Arab Emirates.
The UN General Assembly held votes on competing resolutions on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A Ukraine-sponsored resolution condemning Russia’s aggression was adopted by a vote of 93 to 18, with 65 countries abstaining.
A separate resolution was also put forward by the US which did not mention Moscow’s aggression or Ukraine’s territorial integrity. That resolution was then amended by European nations, to include references to Ukraine’s sovereignty.
This amended version has been adopted — but the US chose to abstain from voting on its own resolution after the amendments were made.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump reiterated that he and President Putin were continuing to have “serious discussions” to end the Ukraine war without input from Europe.
Trump said that Macron had joined him in the Oval Office for a video call with other G7 leaders to mark the third anniversary of the beginning of the war.
“Everyone expressed their goal of seeing the war end, and I emphasised the importance of the vital Critical Minerals and Rare-Earth Deal between the United States and Ukraine, which we hope will be signed very soon,” Trump wrote.
“At the same time, I am in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the war, and also major economic development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia. Talks are proceeding very well!”
The presidents have a chequered history of awkward embraces
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Trump and Macron have made a habit of sharing awkward, intense handshakes.
The first time the pair met at a Nato summit in Brussels in 2017, they gripped each other’s right hands so tightly that their knuckles turned white.
In July that year, the pair shared another shake, hug and pulling session that lasted 29 seconds when they met at a Bastille Day military parade in Paris.
That duel continued when the two leaders met in Paris in December before the reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral. Upon exiting his vehicle at the Élysée Palace, Trump pulled Macron towards him as the two men hugged and gripped each other with clenched fists for about 17 seconds.
Macron told a newspaper in 2017 that the handshake tactics were a deliberate attempt to show Trump that he would not be intimidated.
Scenes at the UN headquarters in New York City as the general assembly passes a resolution on the Ukraine war
MICHAEL M SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES
The UN general assembly approved a Ukrainian resolution demanding an immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine on the third anniversary of the invasion.
The vote in the 193-member world body, whose resolutions are not legally binding, was passed by 93 to 18, with 65 abstentions. The US voted against the resolution.
It has put forward a separate proposal that calls for a swift end to the war but never mentions Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
President Macron leaves the White House after the G7 call with President Trump, Sir Keir Starmer and others
EPA/BONNIE CASH
President Macron has left the White House after joining a video call with other G7 leaders.
Macron smiled and waved at waiting members of the press but did not stop to take questions, and is returning to Blair House, the official guesthouse, before his summit with Trump.
The two leaders are due to hold a joint press conference at 2pm ET (7pm UK time).
Macron has said he planned to urge Trump to stand up to President Putin in peace negotiations.
“Trump, I know him. I respect him and I believe he respects me,” Macron said during a question and answer session on social media last week.
“Donald Trump creates uncertainty among others because he wants to make deals, so Donald Trump creating uncertainty for Vladimir Putin is a good thing.
“I will tell him: deep down you cannot be weak in the face of President Putin. It’s not you, it’s not what you’re made of, and it’s not in your interests.”
Trump and Macron joined leaders of the Group of Seven economies on a video call on Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Sir Keir Starmer, who is set to meet the US president in Washington on Thursday, told world leaders that President Putin should be pushed “not just to talk, but to make concessions”.
The prime minister said that Trump’s intervention in the conflict had created an opportunity, but insisted that the Ukrainians must have a seat at the negotiating table.
The leaders of 13 western allies, including presidents and prime ministers from Canada, Sweden, Denmark and Spain, were expected to attend an event to commemorate the anniversary in Kyiv.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss President Trump’s plans to impose hefty tariffs on European imports into the US.
Trump has said that the European Union had been “very unfair” towards the US and threatened 25 per cent import duties on all of its products.
He signed a memorandum calling for “fair and reciprocal” trade tariffs on all major US trading partners.
The European Union has said it will “respond firmly” if Trump follows through on his plan.
President Trump is due to welcome President Macron of France in Washington on Monday. Macron will be the first European leader to visit the White House since Trump’s inauguration.
The bilateral meeting comes at a moment of deep uncertainty in relations between the United States and its European allies over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The two leaders have voiced starkly opposing views on the war. Last week, Trump described President Zelensky of Ukraine as a “dictator” and declined to name any concessions Russia should be willing to make to achieve peace.
Macron has argued that any negotiated end to the war must come with “strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians”.