Macron Says We Will All Know By Monday If Putin ‘Played’ Trump ‘Once Again’
(Sipa via AP Images)
French President Emmanuel Macron warned Friday that Donald Trump would once again get “played” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump gave Putin a deadline of Monday to agree to bilateral talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over ending the war between the two nations, but the Kremlin has given no indication that things are moving in that direction.
Trump has threatened “consequences” if the meeting doesn’t happen, but Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed their doubts.
At a joint news conference Friday, Macron said if Putin doesn’t agree by Monday, “the deadline set by President Trump, it means that once again President Putin played President Trump.”
Merz also expressed what Politico reported was “among the strongest public expressions of doubt yet from a European leader that Trump’s peace push will work.”
“Unlike what had been agreed between President Trump and President Putin last week, when we were together in Washington, it is obviously not going to come to a meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Putin,” Merz told reporters before a dinner with Macron on Thursday.
During their Alaskan summit earlier this month, Trump failed to persuade Putin to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine. Just days later, Trump hosted Zelensky and top European leaders, including Macron and Merz, at the White House to discuss Ukrainian security.
Following the White House summit, Trump called Putin and claimed the two leaders “began the arrangements for a meeting.”
A Kremlin spokesperson told the Russian outlet Interfax, “Putin does not rule out the possibility of such a meeting, but believes that any high-level meeting must be well-prepared, so that it can finalize groundwork which first needs to be prepared at the expert level. It cannot be said that this expert work is in full swing, unfortunately not. We remain interested and ready for such talks.”
