Emmanuel Macron has suggested it would be “chic” if the United States were a French-speaking country, after a tongue-in-cheek comment King Charles aimed at Donald Trump during his visit to Washington. In a speech at a White House state dinner, the British monarch joked on Tuesday evening that if it were not for the UK, the US would be speaking French.
“You recently commented, Mr President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German,” King Charles said. “Dare I say that if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French?”
In a response on X, President Macron wrote: “That would be chic!” The remark comes amid a fraught and tense relationship between Macron and Trump, with the US president having repeatedly criticised the French leader since reassuming office in January 2025.
King Charles and Queen Camilla’s historic tour to the US was widely seen as an opportunity for the UK to begin repairing a fractured relationship with the Trump administration, following several attacks on British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the UK’s refusal to engage in the US war on Iran. Macron has been another subject of Trump’s fierce criticism, with the US president once accusing him of being “publicity-seeking” and saying he “always gets it wrong”.
Earlier this month, Trump took things personally when he referenced a video in which Brigitte Macron shoved the French politician as they disembarked from a plane in Vietnam in 2025. Expressing his frustration over the lack of support for the Iran war, Trump said: “We didn’t need them, but I asked anyway. I call up France, Macron – whose wife treats him extremely badly... Still recovering from the right to the jaw.” Macron slammed the remarks as “neither elegant nor up to standard”.
King Charles and Queen Camilla will cap their historic US tour with a final stop in Virginia on Thursday after a packed day in New York City. On the final day of their trip, the royals will attend a party marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, meet members of indigenous communities, and discuss climate change projects, according to US media. The King will afterwards journey to Bermuda, his first visit as monarch to a British overseas territory.
On Wednesday, Charles and Camilla visited the 9/11 memorial in New York City, where they laid a bouquet of white flowers at the memorial pool.
