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‘You lack common decency,’ – President Macron’s spokesman tells Trump

Published

6 years ago

November 14, 2018

A French government spokesman on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump of a lack of “ common decency ” for attacking his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Twitter on the third anniversary of a jihadist massacre in Paris .Asked to react to Trump ’ s tweets mocking Macron ’ s low poll numbers and lashing his defence proposals , spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told reporters : “ Yesterday was November 13 when we commemorate the murder of 130 citizens three years ago in Paris and Saint- Denis . So I will reply in English : ‘ common decency ’ would have been the appropriate thing . ”

His reaction was the strongest yet by the French government to Trump ’ s astonishing attack on Macron , which came two days after he was the French leader’ s guest at World War I centenary commemorations in Paris .

Apparently irked at Macron ’ s criticism of nationalists in his Armistice Day address , Trump tweeted that Macron had a “ very low approval rating ” and said the French leader was “ just trying to get onto another subject . ”

He also again attacked Macron over the latter ’ s calls for a European army , slammed as protectionist French tariffs on US wine and declared there was “ no country more Nationalist than France ” .

Macron told CNN in an interview after talks with Trump on Saturday that the defence row had been cleared up . He has not reacted publicly to Trump ’ s latest broadside .

One of his advisors on Tuesday dismissed the tweets as “ written for Americans ” and said that relations between Trump and Macron were “ not always easy but are enduring . ”

( AFP)