 "French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, February 24, 2025. (Photo: Reuters)")
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday fact-checked US President Donald Trump about the aid to Ukraine.
At a joint press interaction at the Oval Office in White House, Trump repeated the lie that the United States has provided $350 billion to Ukraine in aid in the war with Russia. At that point, Macron intervened and said Europe had provided the majority of the aid to Ukraine.
With a hand on Trump’s arm to correct him, Macron said Europe had contributed 60 per cent of all aid to Ukraine so far.
“In fact, to be to frank, we paid, we paid 60 per cent of the total default. So, like US loans, guarantee, grants, we provided real money. To be clear, we have 230 billion frozen assets in Europe — Russian assets. But this is not as a collateral of a loan because this is not our belonging. So they are frozen. If at the end of the day in the negotiation we will have with Russia, they’re ready to give it to us, super, it will be loan at the end of the day and Russia will have paid for that,” said Macron.
In the press interaction, Trump was complaining that while Europe gets its aid back as it is in the form of loans, US aid, which he said was to the tune of $350 billion, was not similarly being repaid.
Contrary to Trump’s claims, the United States pledged around $119 billion in aid to Ukraine so far compared to around $138 billion from Europe, according to Kiel Institute for the World Economy that tracks the aid to Ukraine.
Trump was, however, partially correct in saying that much of Europe’s aid is in the the form of very soft loans. Citing the example of European loans to Ukraine, Trump has been making the case that the United States should also gets its aid repaid. For that, he has proposed a minerals deal that essentially amounts to the US colonisation of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected the predatory deal.
The Macron-Trump meeting comes at a time when the relationship between the United States and Europe is at an all-time low as Trump has switched sides. While he had always been friendly with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and critical of support to Ukraine and Europe, he has completely switched sites over the past week and is now firmly a partner of Putin — the United States just voted with Russia against a resolution on the Russian war on Ukraine at the United Nations (UN).
Even though Trump and Macron appeared to be cordial, the differences were out in the open. While Trump again called Zelenskyy a dictator and refused to call out Putin for invading Ukraine, Macron did so. He also said that whatever peace deal is struck “must not mean a surrender of Ukraine” .
“It must not mean a cease-fire without guarantees. This peace must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty,” said Macron.