{"id":874987,"date":"2026-06-18T03:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/874987\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T03:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:39:16","slug":"macron-deploys-versailles-in-high-stakes-courtship-of-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/874987\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron deploys Versailles in high-stakes courtship of Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump<\/a> explained the appeal in one sentence: \u201cVersailles is not gold leaf \u2014 Versailles is the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Emmanuel Macron<\/a>, that was precisely the point.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, the French president threw open Louis XIV\u2019s palace to his U.S. counterpart for a private reception, show and dinner marking America\u2019s 250th birthday<\/a>. At a turbulent moment<\/a> for the trans-Atlantic alliance, it could help Macron keep a personal channel open as the two navigate differences over Iran, Ukraine and tariffs.<\/p>\n

It already kept Trump from leaving a Group of Seven summit<\/a> early, as he did last year in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a fan of beautiful places,\u201d he told reporters, saying he had planned to leave earlier until \u201ca very nice man\u201d invited him to dinner.<\/p>\n

After posing in front of Versailles\u2019 golden doors, Trump enjoyed a private tour of the chateau\u2019s glittering interior. And in a surprise move over a dinner of lobster, caviar and vanilla ice cream, he signed a memorandum on ending the war in Iran<\/a> at a venue steeped in historical symbolism.<\/a><\/p>\n

Versailles is perhaps the biggest soft-power flex available to a French president: the Hall of Mirrors, the gardens of the Sun King and several centuries of carefully polished national grandeur.<\/p>\n

\u201cVersailles is a diplomatic tool and an instrument of influence,\u201d Macron said Wednesday, likening diplomacy to soccer. \u201cWhether I\u2019m playing at home or away, my goal is to score goals. And when I host other teams, I try to give them a nice welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

France holds little economic or military sway over Washington, so pageantry is one of its few levers \u2014 even as its use elsewhere has brought mixed results at best.<\/p>\n

Soft power built from stone<\/p>\n

Macron and Trump have often clashed over policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Their relationship has endured partly because Macron understands the power of personal attention, dramatic settings and a well-timed invitation.<\/p>\n

Their first meeting in 2017 produced a white-knuckled handshake that instantly became a symbol of their competitive rapport.<\/p>\n

Months later came dinner inside the Eiffel Tower and a place of honor at France\u2019s Bastille Day parade.<\/p>\n

Versailles raises the stakes, allowing a French president to wrap a modern political encounter in the scale and authority of national history.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is soft-power flex based on hard buildings,\u201d said Denis Lacorne, professor of American studies at Sciences Po. <\/p>\n

Macron has used the palace before, receiving Russian President Vladimir Putin there in 2017 and later hosting King Charles III and Queen Camilla for a state dinner.<\/p>\n

Versailles has been a favored setting for French leaders to honor foreign guests for over three centuries, the palace told The Associated Press. It remains \u201ca place in the service of French diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Trump, the setting carries added resonance. <\/p>\n

The former real estate developer has long treated architecture as a statement of status, success and power. In his second term, he has sought to erect a legacy in stone \u2014 with plans for a new White House ballroom and a 250-foot (76-meter) triumphal arch resembling Paris\u2019 Arc de Triomphe.<\/p>\n

The real deal \u2014 and 357 mirrors<\/p>\n

The evening included a Hall of Mirrors visit and fountain display.<\/p>\n

The Hall of Mirrors was once a feat of technology: 357 mirrors set in 17 arches along a 73-meter (240-foot) gallery, showing French manufacturers could rival Venice\u2019s celebrated glassmakers.<\/p>\n

They were also built to multiply a king. Every royal entrance ricocheted across the glass, and a modern guest gets the same treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will be reflected many, many times, from one mirror to another,\u201d Lacorne said.<\/p>\n

For a president who has spent his second term turning the Oval Office gold, the appeal is clear, he added.<\/p>\n

Trump arrives, in a sense, at a building he has quoted for years: He has said he modeled Mar-a-Lago\u2019s ballroom after Versailles.<\/p>\n

Others have sought to flatter a visiting Trump<\/p>\n

Trump remembers spectacle, and often brings it home.<\/p>\n

The 2017 Bastille Day parade saw tanks, horses and marching bands fill the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es as fighter jets trailing red, white and blue smoke soared overhead. <\/p>\n

Trump called it \u201cone of the greatest parades I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to try and top it,\u201d he said back in Washington, where he began pressing for a military parade. In 2025, he finally presided over a large Army anniversary parade through the capital.<\/p>\n

China employed dazzle diplomacy when it hosted Trump for a \u201cstate visit plus\u201d<\/a> in 2017, including a rare tour of its Forbidden City, an experience once reserved for emperors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Britain offered its own version last September, greeting Trump\u2019s second state visit with mounted troops, a carriage procession and a Windsor Castle banquet.<\/p>\n

The gleam is the easy part<\/p>\n

The diplomatic pomp has clearly flattered Trump, who called the Windsor banquet one of the highest honors of his life.<\/p>\n

But it seems to have won few concessions.<\/p>\n

The early Macron-Trump \u201cbromance\u201d has hardened into something rougher and more transactional.<\/p>\n

Trump has threatened tariffs of up to 100% on French wine and Champagne amid a broader trade fight. France opposed the U.S. war against Iran, even as Macron pressed Washington to keep backing Ukraine.<\/p>\n

At home, the dinner has drawn criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must learn once and for all to live without Trump,\u201d said Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, the veteran far-left leader.<\/p>\n

Versailles hands Macron some advantages, experts say: centuries of diplomatic history, a setting built for Trump\u2019s taste for ceremony, and a palace already familiar to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who visit each year.<\/p>\n

History counsels caution. Ronald Reagan dined beneath the same mirrors on the sidelines of the 1982 G7, and central disagreements outlasted the splendor.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Angela Charlton in Paris and Michel Euler in Versailles contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump explained the appeal in one sentence: \u201cVersailles is not gold leaf \u2014 Versailles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":874988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[350432,117151,2147,355653,7838,84,69,8703,40783,2568,57,13790,83,6087,172369,45981,159027,355652,50,80,120633,15119,273,274,93,103,107],"class_list":["post-874987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-250th-anniversary-of-american-independence","tag-angela-charlton","tag-canada","tag-denis-lacorne","tag-diplomacy","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-france-government","tag-g7-summit","tag-general-news","tag-international-trade","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-jean-luc-melenchon","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-louis-xiv-of-france","tag-michel-euler","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-queen-camilla","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-washington-news","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116769034557168683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}