Mr Macron delivered a passionate speech at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Sunday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. Trump and Macron were seen greeting each other amicably at the Élysée Palace in Paris on Saturday, but the French President later issued a stark warning over the growing trend of isolationism, stating that “nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism”. President Trump subsequently issued a stark warning to EU leaders on Monday in a series of Tweets, accusing them of underfunding their militaries and relying on US protection.
He wrote: “Just returned from France where much was accomplished in my meetings with World Leaders.
“Never easy bringing up the fact that the US must be treated fairly, which it hasn’t, on both military and trade.
“We pay for large portions of other countries’ military protection, hundreds of billions of dollars, for the great privilege of losing hundreds of billions of dollars with these same countries on trade.”
President Trump has repeatedly criticised EU nations for underfunding their armed forces and for failing to meet their defence spending targets.
Only five NATO member states – the US, UK, Greece, Estonia, and Poland – currently allocate two percent of their GDP to defence spending, which is a NATO requirement.
President Trump added: “I told them that this situation cannot continue – It is, and always has been, ridiculously unfair to the United States.
“Massive amounts of money spent on protecting other countries, and we get nothing but trade deficits and losses.
“It is time that these very rich countries either pay the United States for its great military protection, or protect themselves and trade must be made free and fair!”
Last week, the French President defended his manifesto in the 2019 European elections, insisting Brussels must increase efforts to build a new EU-wide army.
Mr Macron repeatedly urged the block to arm itself with a defence force to stop relying on the US and NATO on matters of security.
However, the US President did not welcome Mr Macron’s idea and branded it as “insulting”.
Trump wrote on Twitter last week: “President Macron of France has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the US, China and Russia.
“Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidises greatly!”