In a speech at a White House state dinner<\/a>, the British monarch had joked on Tuesday evening that if it were not for the UK, the US would be speaking French.<\/p>\n \u201cYou recently commented, Mr President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German,\u201d he said. \u201cDare I say that if it wasn\u2019t for us, you\u2019d be speaking French?\u201d<\/p>\n In a response on X, President Macron said: \u201cThat would be chic!\u201d<\/p>\n King Charles and Queen Camilla\u2019s historic tour to the US was widely seen as an opportunity for the UK to begin repairing a fractured relationship with the Trump administration<\/a>, following several attacks on British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer over the UK\u2019s refusal to engage in the US war on Iran.<\/a> <\/p>\n Mr Macron has been another subject of Mr Trump\u2019s fierce criticism ever since he reassumed the White House in January 2025. His latest jibe \u2013 however harmless it may seem to most \u2013 risks summoning yet another furious verbal tirade from his hot-tempered counterpart in the US. <\/p>\n The pair have suffered a fraught relationship, with the US president once accusing him of being \u201cpublicity-seeking\u201d and saying he \u201calways gets it wrong\u201d. <\/p>\n Earlier this month, Mr Trump took things personally when he referenced a video in which Mr Macron\u2019s wife, Brigitte Macron, shoved the French politician as they disembarked from a plane in Vietnam in 2025.<\/p>\n Expressing his frustration over the lack of support for the Iran war, he said: \u201cWe didn\u2019t need them, but I asked anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cI call up France, Macron \u2013 whose wife treats him extremely badly… Still recovering from the right to the jaw.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Macron slammed the remarks as \u201cneither elegant nor up to standard\u201d.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The King will afterwards journey to Bermuda, his first visit as monarch to a British overseas territory.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10091,10646,6355,529,14,5809,5,6,6252],"class_list":{"0":"post-26235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","9":"tag-british-royalty","10":"tag-horizontal","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-royalty","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116497813785207031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2273086327.jpg\")
The King made the jibe during a White House state dinner (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2240461550.jpg\")
The pair have had a fraught relationship since Trump reassumed office (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/macron-shove-new.jpeg\")
President Emmanuel Macron shoved in face by wife Brigitte aboard presidential plane in Vietnam on 25 May 2025 (Pool)<\/p>\n