Don’t see eye to eye

Macron needles Trump’s Nobel ambitions after UN address

President Trump and President Macron don’t see eye to eye on how to end Israel’s war in Gaza.

By Clea Caulcutt

French President Emmanuel Macron fired back at U.S. President Donald Trump Tuesday over his repeated desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize, challenging him to bring the war in Gaza to an end.

And, a day after leading a landmark United Nations General Assembly summit on Palestinian statehood, Macron blasted Trump’s assertion that recognizing a Palestinian state was “a reward” for Hamas.

The French president said that it was “totally wrong” that recognition was a gift to Hamas, during an interview with French channel BFMTV. Instead he called on Trump to put pressure on Israel if he wants to get the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I see a U.S. president who is active, who wants peace… who wants the Nobel Peace Prize. But the Nobel Peace Prize is possible only if you stop this war,” Macron said on Tuesday.

“We must put pressure on the government of Israel so that they… stop this war and obtain the release of the 48 hostages,” he continued. “It’s possible, nothing is pre-ordained.”

During his own address to the U.N. gathering earlier Tuesday, Trump repeated his claim he had “ended seven un-endable wars” and that everyone said he “should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Macron and Trump appeared to clash during the U.N. annual gathering on Gaza and on the relevance of the United Nations, but they had a friendly exchange in person on the sidelines of the U.N.’s annual gathering.

“I hear France is doing well, and you’re doing well… apart from the occasional problem of wine,” he said, with reference to disagreements over U.S. tariffs on EU goods. “Emmanuel has actually helped with a couple of wars, settling seven wars,” he added.

Asked about Macron’s comments on Trump’s desire to get the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump merely said that it was “altogether” about ending the war in Gaza and Ukraine.

The French president’s comments came as European leaders grow increasingly frustrated with Trump’s apparent reluctance to impose sanctions on Russia over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine or put pressure on Israel to end military operations in the Gaza Strip.

Macron in turn has angered the U.S. and Israel with his push to get Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations annual gathering this week. On Monday, Macron himself recognized the Palestinian state, after the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada made the same move.

Trump slammed this wave in favor of recognition as “a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”

Trump also said that he was “deeply engaged” in seeking a ceasefire in Gaza, but that the militant group Hamas had “repeatedly rejected reasonable offers to make peace.”

In his interview after Trump’s speech, Macron countered that recognizing a Palestinian state was a way to “isolate” Hamas because it bolsters the Palestinian Authority and encourages it to make reforms.

In his speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Macron also delivered a vigorous defense of the U.N. as a conflict-solving institution, a message very much at odds with Trump’s earlier attack on the global body. The French president said “more than ever” the world needed the United Nation’s “the spirit of cooperation.”

“We are the United Nations, and we must not give in to the spirit of defeat because the world is here in front of us,” he said.

Earlier, Trump had attacked the U.N. as an irrelevant body incapable of resolving wars, even criticizing it for a broken escalator and malfunctioning teleprompter.