A call between world leaders is usually a carefully choreographed event reserved for talk of war and peace. France’s Emmanuel Macron used his hotline to President Donald Trump to complain about New York traffic.
After he spoke at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday night, Macron found himself stuck behind a police barricade while he was trying to reach his country’s diplomatic mission in the city. Whereas regular folk may have sat patiently or taken to social media to vent their fury, Macron put aside any tension over their dueling stances on Israel's war in Gaza and dialed his friend in the White House.
“How are you?” Macron was recorded saying into his cellphone. “Guess what? I’m waiting in the street because everything is frozen for you!”
He then tried to use their traffic chat as an excuse to discuss weightier matters.
“I would love this weekend have a short discussion with Qatar and you on the situation in Gaza,” Macron said.
An official traveling with Macron told NBC News that Macron “took the opportunity to call Donald Trump on the phone while walking, for a very warm and friendly conversation that allowed them to discuss several international issues.”
It wasn’t possible to hear Trump’s responses. The White House for comment didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police officers guarding the barricades appeared somewhat embarrassed at having to block the path of a visiting world leader.
“I’m sorry, president, I’m really sorry, it’s just that everything’s frozen right now,” one of them says in the video. Macron seems to joke with them that they could turn a blind eye to his crossing, saying he wants to “negotiate” with them.
He wasn’t the only world leader to suffer such a traffic-related indignity. Earlier in the day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was also seen held up at the barriers.
French media reported that Macron was soon able to complete his journey to the consulate.
Beneath the minor traffic-related indignity, there was genuine friction between the two leaders this week. Macron had just announced that France would become the latest country to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Trump decried as a reward for Hamas' terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
"I think it honors Hamas, and you can't do that because of Oct. 7. You just can't do that," Trump told reporters as he sat next to Macron on Tuesday.
Macron retorted that "nobody forgets the 7th of October, but after almost two years of war, what is the result?" He added, "This is not the right way to proceed."
Macron added later Tuesday that if Trump wants his long-coveted Nobel Peace Prize, then he needs to stop the war in Gaza.
"There is one person who can do something about it, and that is the U.S. president," he told France's BFMTV. "And the reason he can do more than us is because we do not supply weapons that allow the war in Gaza to be waged. We do not supply equipment that allows war to be waged in Gaza. The United States of America does."
Echoing the nuanced nature of their relationship, Trump did also say that Macron was “doing a really good job. He’s fighting hard. He’s fighting on a lot of fronts. He’s helping with regard to the Russia, Ukraine catastrophe. And his words of wisdom mean a lot." He added, "We’ve been friends for a long time now, really from the first term on.”
France is the latest European country to formally recognize Palestine as a state, joining the United Kingdom and adding to a growing list of global nations that now numbers more than 145. The United States, Germany, Italy, Japan and a handful of others are firmly in the minority.
Macron has sought to cast himself as a Trump-whisperer who can act as a counterweight to him: someone who gets on with Trump personally but is unafraid to stand up for European interests when the need arises.
Nevertheless, their relationship has blown hot and cold.
Personal interactions have been characterized by uncomfortably long handshakes and macho knee-slapping. And in June, Trump branded Macron as a “publicity-seeking” leader who “always gets it wrong” after Macron made comments about his counterpart’s decision to leave the Group of 7 summit in Canada early.
Though he didn't mention France by name, Trump told European nations in his U.N. address that "your countries are going to hell" because of their "failed experiment of open borders."
