US President Donald Trump on Friday said that French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron were ‘fine’ after a video of the couple went viral as they landed in Vietnam.
The viral video shows Brigitte Macron apparently shoving the French president’s face as they landed in Vietnam for their tour.
“He’s fine. They’re fine. They’re two really good people I know very well, and I don’t know that was all about,” Trump said, replying to a reporter’s question at the Oval Office.
Donald Trump was holding a press conference at the White House with departing DOGE leader Elon Musk, to whom he was bidding farewell.
The three-times married US President was also asked if he had any “world leader to world leader marital advice” for Macron regarding the video.
“Make sure the door remains closed,” he quipped, adding, “That was not good.”
Did Brigitte Macron slap Emmanuel Macron?
The incident, filmed last Sunday, was captured just as the door of the French presidential opened after the Emmanuels landed in Hanoi for their visit.
In the video, French President Emmanuel Macron was seen standing in the vestibule adjoining the boarding gate, communicating with his wife Brigitte Macron, who was inside the cabin.
As security officials open the gate, the President’s wife’s hand suddenly appeared from the doorway, which shoved his face away in a gesture that appeared to be an aggressive display.
The French President appeared to be startled at first but quickly regained composure as he realised that the boarding gate had opened and cameras were pointing directly at him.
The moment quickly made headlines in France, with media trying to decipher the interaction that cameras spotted through the just-opened door of the plane.
The headline of a story on the website of the daily Le Parisien newspaper asked: “Slap or ‘squabble’? The images of Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron disembarking in Vietnam trigger a lot of comment.”
Macron himself denied on Monday that the couple had been having a domestic dispute. He blamed disinformation campaigns for trying to put false meaning on the footage.
“We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” the French president said.
“Everyone needs to calm down,” he added.