Donald Trump is not only insolent in his public interventions and tweets. The President of the United States can adopt a blatantly rude behavior in private meetings with his counterparts around the world, even if they are allies and have known each other for years, as is the case with Emmanuel Macron.
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Bruno Le Maire, who was France’s Minister of Economy and Finance for seven years and alternates politics with literature, has published Le temps d’une décision (Gallimard), a juicy account of behind-the-scenes diplomatic struggles, the intimacy of power, with portraits that are both ironic and merciless of the protagonists he has met, based on firsthand experiences.
Several scenes show Trump’s peculiar character and his destabilizing style with his interlocutors, halfway between provocation and absurdity, a way of acting that is the antithesis of the Cartesian logic learned by the French elites.
One of the shocking moments occurred during a meeting at the White House. Macron was trying to explain to Trump, with health and scientific arguments, the European concern about chlorinated chickens (a controversial disinfection method) that the United States exported to the EU, a point of friction for years in the trade relationship between Washington and Brussels. Suddenly, Trump turns his bulky body in the plush armchair and says, incredulously: “Chlorinated chickens…” After these two words follows a brief silence before firing off. “You know what, Emmanuel, I have eaten chlorinated chickens since I was five years old.” To emphasize more, the host shows the fingers of his open hand. And then adds: “And look at you and look at me!”
The American leader breaks Cartesian logic and unsettles his French interlocutors
In interviews these days to promote the book, Le Maire has implied that, with his comment, Trump wanted to contrast his physical bulk with the slender body of the French president, which would add a greater lack of respect.
Another revealing situation took place at the 2019 G-7 summit in Biarritz, during Trump’s first term. The two presidents, along with Le Maire and the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, were talking in Trump’s hotel room. The space was small and dimly lit, giving an intimate air. Le Maire and Mnuchin were seated on poufs. Trump, on a sofa, with legs apart and his tie hanging between them. Macron, in an armchair. The latter was addressing the threat of high tariffs against French wines, a retaliation for the European tax on digital giants like Google or Facebook. A serious matter. The French president was trying to make Trump see the serious damage to the sector in France and the inflationary consequences in the United States. The American leader then straightens his tie, rises from the back of the sofa, and knocks several times with his knuckles on a small dark table. Unrelated to the ongoing conversation, Trump looks at Macron and says: “You know what, Emmanuel, I have been to Africa. People in Africa are black, black like this table!” It was his way of communicating that the topic did not interest him or that he did not want to negotiate.
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Le Maire also does not leave Vladimir Putin in a good light, a character he highlights for his cynicism, coldness, calculation, and contempt for all things Western in general. His description of the Russian president is relentless: “Vladimir Putin is small, stocky, his Tatar face, with cheekbones that seem artificially swollen with Botox, conveys no emotion. His sparse dyed blond hair is impeccably combed toward the crown of his head (…). Only the impressive escort surrounding him reveals his function. And his lateness. He is always late, by several hours. He can receive his guest at any hour of the day or night.”
Another character in the book is Sergey Lavrov, the tireless Russian Foreign Minister, whom the author highlights for his verbal skill, his fondness for Brioni suits, made to measure, to enhance his stature, his position, and his longevity. Le Maire notes that “age and whiskey have broadened his silhouette” and that “multiple surgical touch-ups have somewhat deformed his face.”
“Look at you and look at me!” Trump snapped at Macron when he warned him about the danger of disinfected chickens
It is striking how the former French minister sees the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. He calls him the “new Mao” who “knows exactly where he wants to take China, to the top spot.” “The one who decides is silent – he writes -. The one who decides speaks through his actions. Xi Jinping is therefore a man of silence, while most of his counterparts are men (or women, but there are few) of noise.”
Le Maire does not miss the funny anecdotes. Of Xi Jinping, he recalls a press conference with Macron, in the winter lounge of the Élysée. “His gaze expresses absolutely nothing, neither assent, nor surprise, nor discomfort,” Le Maire estimates. But, from the podium, the impassive Chinese leader struggles unsuccessfully to open the cap of a thermos. After several unsuccessful attempts, a nervous assistant who permanently carries a black suitcase with cold water and hot tea thermoses dares to approach to solve the problem. Power is also reflected in these details.
Real power
Elon Musk and the minotaurs of technology
Bruno Le Maire thinks Elon Musk is a genius, although he portrays him as an eccentric, with attacks of “epileptic laughter” and obsessed with space conquest. At a lunch at the Élysée, due to Macron’s delay, the American magnate confided to the French minister: “I am not used to waiting for people.” Then Musk gave a brief overview of the global economic situation and praised the productivity of Chinese factories compared to European ones, before returning to his favorite topic, to the surprise of the other diners. “The only question is whether we live in a civilization of one planet or a multiplanetary one,” posed the owner of Space X. Le Maire calls Musk and others in his sphere “minotaurs of technology.” According to him, these mythologically inspired figures took power in Washington on September 4, 2025, at “a reconciliation dinner with the air of a meeting of the Knights of the Round Table” and Trump “in the role of King Arthur.” “The minotaurs are those you find at the end of the labyrinth, those who exploit our data and turn it into fortune, those who really decide what will happen, not only in the economic world, in which they represent a significant part, but also in the geopolitics of states,” Le Maire states. In his account, he includes another unusual scene, also at the Élysée, a meal attended by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon boss, and his then-girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez. In the middle of the feast, she got up to paint her lips scarlet in front of a four-meter mirror. She returned to the table and sat on Bezos’s lap.
