French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a subtle burn toward President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying in an interview that he does not “do policy or diplomacy” via Twitter.
“I do not do policy or diplomacy by tweets,” Macron said in an interview on French network TF1.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Macron on Twitter in recent weeks, kicking off his visit to Paris last week — where he joined other world leaders in a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I — with a few jabs.
“President Macron of France has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia. Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!” he tweeted after Macron called for a “true European army” to protect the continent’s countries, even from the U.S.
A few days later, Trump taunted Macron again on the matter.
When asked by a reporter about the tweets, Macron said, “At each important moment in our history we have been allies, and between allies there is respect and I do not want to hear the rest.”
He later added that Trump is simply “doing American politics.”
Macron also clarified his comments about Europe preparing an army to defend itself, saying “it was not a rejection of NATO or France’s alliance with the United States, but a guarantor of France’s ‘sovereignty’ and would give France and other European countries the ability to help individual European countries, should they be in need,” according to The New York Times.
“Allies are not vassals,” Macron said.
