Trump and Macron display old friendship but split on the Ukraine war

Washington: President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron diverged on the Ukraine war on Monday as the visiting European leader contradicted the US president over who was responsible for the Russian invasion and how much the allies are doing to help Ukraine.

While trading compliments and friendly gestures during a convivial White House meeting, Trump and Macron's polite exchange exposed the deepening divide between the United States and Europe as the newly restored US president seeks to broker a peace deal with Russia.

Meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Trump refused to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator and falsely stated that the United States had spent three times more on the war than Europe has. Macron trod gently, but he made clear that Russia was to blame for the war, not Ukraine, and corrected Trump's assertions about European aid.

Trump also said he might go to Moscow if a peace deal is reached, which he predicted could happen within weeks. That would make him the first U.S. president to visit Russia in more than a decade and would be seen as a boon for Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes.

The session came at a time of growing tension over the future of the Atlantic alliance and peace talks with Russia that have sidelined Ukrainian and European leaders. Macron has rallied European leaders to formulate a strategy as the United States appears to be shifting favor from Europe to Russia, then he rushed to Washington to meet personally with Trump.

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump, who last week said that Ukraine "started" the war and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a "dictator without elections," declined to use the term for Putin. "I don't use those words lightly," Trump said.

Macron gave voice to the consensus view in Europe and, until now, in the United States that Russia is to blame for the war. "This is a responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia," Macron said.

Trump repeated the false claim that the United States had spent $350 billion to aid Ukraine and "we had nothing to show for it," while Europe has spent only $100 billion. In fact, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Europe has allocated $138 billion compared with $119 billion from the United States.