“Make sure the door remains closed,” the US president has quipped over a video showing France’s First Lady shoving her husband on a plane
US President Donald Trump has said Emmanuel Macron is “fine” following an incident in which his wife Brigitte appeared to slap her husband aboard their plane.
The footage, which quickly went viral, was filmed as the French first couple arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 25 to begin a Southeast Asia tour. As the aircraft door opened, Macron was seen speaking to someone off-camera. Two arms in red sleeves then reached out and pushed his face, covering his mouth and jaw. He stepped back, smiled, and waved after noticing the cameras. Brigitte, wearing a red jacket, soon appeared beside him. Macron offered his arm, which she declined, and the two walked down the stairs together.
Asked on Friday if he had any marital advice for Macron, Trump quipped, “Make sure the door remains closed.”
He added, “That was not good,” and said he had spoken to Macron after the incident. “He’s fine, they’re fine,” Trump said.
“They’re two really good people I know very well,” he added. “I don’t know what that was all about.”
Macron has downplayed the incident, telling reporters the moment was simply the two of them “having fun.”
He also addressed two other recent viral clips. “A lot of lunatics are spending their days interpreting all these videos,” he said.
One clip, filmed on a train to Ukraine, showed Macron with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The French president briefly hid a small object, prompting online rumors of drug use, which the Elysee palace called baseless.
Another, from the European Political Community summit in Albania two weeks ago, showed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gripping Macron’s finger while seated, a gesture some interpreted as a power play.
Macron confirmed all three videos were genuine but dismissed the narratives around them.
He and Brigitte have been married since 2007. The couple met when he was a student and she was a teacher at his high school in Amiens. She is 24 years older than her husband.
