Macron plays ‘Trump whisperer’ as the US president signs Iran ceasefire deal after a successful G7 summit

For the French president, Emmanuel Macron, this year’s meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) in the spa town of Évian-les-Bains from June 15 to 17 had several pressing issues to address. As well as reaching a coordinated approach towards artificial intelligence, trade and conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, Macron needed to get Donald Trump to stay for the entire meeting.

This was no easy task. the US president left the 2018 summit in Quebec, Canada early due to a summit with North Korea and personal tensions with the host, Justin Trudeau. And he left the 2025 summit in Alberta, also in Canada, due to the Israeli war with Iran, which the US was to join a few days later.

While the G7 meeting is normally a moment for some of the world’s biggest economies to show unity – with the US usually in lockstep with its G7 allies – the Trump era has made this event more unpredictable. The major questions facing Macron as host were: what might Trump say to undermine G7 unity – and would he leave early once again?

In both respects, Macron was able to avoid a negative outcome. But it was no easy feat. Macron’s masterstroke was to resort to flattery, inviting Trump to a dinner at the opulent 2,300 room Palace of Versailles at the end of the summit on June 17, billed as a celebration of the 250th anniversary of US independence. Macron had purposely pushed back the G7 schedule so that Trump could attend a mixed martial arts fight at the White House on his 80th birthday.

Kissing up to Trump was something that Europeans have gone along with for most of Trump’s first and second terms. But when European leaders failed to answer Trump’s call for assistance in the US and Israel’s war against Iran, they were the target of bitter attacks from the US president.

The US recently announced it is reducing the number of F-16 and F-15 fighter jets available to Nato from 150 to 100. Maritime reconnaissance aircraft would also be reduced from 26 to 15 and eight…

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