Emmanuel Macron told “friend” Donald Trump “I love you so much” during a phone call, the Republican claimed at a major rally in the US last night.
Speaking to a huge crowd of MAGA supporters in Wildwood, New Jersey, Trump described fixing an unfavourable tax standoff between Paris and Washington as he sought to secure votes ahead of the 2024 presidential election on November 5.
The two nations were at loggerheads in 2020 over Macron’s planned tax on American tech giants, which led to the US threatening an even bigger tax on French imports, such as wine.
Trump said of the perception of America at the time: “The European Union treats us very badly. Macron of France – good guy – he’s a friend of mine, but he loves France.
“And he was going to put a tax on all American business – a very substantial tax. Five percent on American businesses in France.”
Describing how he went onto to try and strike a deal with Macron, Trump said he rang him up: “I said Emmanuel ‘Hi Emmanuel, how are you, Emmanuel’.”
Trump then went onto impersonate a French accent, continuing: “‘Oh, Donald, Donald I love you so much, you are doing such a great job’.
“I said ‘Thank you very much, I agree’.”
He described telling Macron he “had to do something about it”, and says he threatened his French counterpart with taxing French wine and champagne entering the US at 100 percent.
Trump claims he was phoned back in minutes by Macron, who said he had ended the tax on US business.
Following the call, Macron wrote on Twitter: “We will work together on a good agreement to avoid tariff escalation.”
Trump replied on the social media platform: “Excellent!”
Lisa Fagan, spokesperson for the city of Wildwood where Trump’s campaign event was held, estimated the crowd represented between 80,000 and 100,000 attendees.
The beachfront gathering has been described by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J as the largest political in state history. It was designed to serve as a show of force at a critical moment for Trump, who is facing dozens of felony charges in four separate criminal cases with the election less than six months away.
Trump denies all charges and says the criminal cases amount to a politically motivated “witch hunt” to keep him out of office.
Hours before he was scheduled to take the stage, thousands of loyalists wearing “Never Surrender” T-shirts and red “Make America Great Again” hats crowded onto the sand between the boardwalk and carnival rides.
