Trump did not force Macron out of Vatican talks with Zelenskyy, media say
Archive photo: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump did not tell French President Emmanuel Macron to leave the meeting with their Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reports The Telegraph.
What happened
Last weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a brief meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Vatican during the Pope's funeral.
A video was released in the media showing French President Emmanuel Macron approaching Trump and Zelenskyy before their conversation. The video also shows that three chairs are first placed in the hall of St. Peter's Basilica, leading to speculation that Macron also wanted to participate in the conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy. But the third chair was later removed.
The Sun analyzed the video and a lip reader suggested Trump allegedly said to Macron “You are not in the right here, I need you to do me a favor, you should not be here.”
What it really was
According to the Telegraph, their source at the Élysée Palace denied the claims that Trump had kicked Macron out.
As far as we know, during a one-on-one talk, Trump began by calling Russia's attacks on civilians “disgusting.”
A source close to the talks said that it appeared that Trump “feels almost a bit burned by Putin attacking civilians in Kyiv,” which left him “looking a bit stupid.”
While the exact nature of the conversation is open to interpretation, French diplomatic sources made it clear that the chair was for the interpreter, not Macron, and downplayed any tension.
“People have got their brains in a twist over the third chair. (It) was supposed to be for the interpreter but in the end it turned into a tête-à-tête,” a source told The Telegraph.
On the same day, Trump posted that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was not interested in ending the war in Ukraine, was stalling, and suggested imposing banking or secondary sanctions on Russia.
