The US leader said in a fiery Twitter post last week that Mr Macron’s suggestion that Europe have its own military force in order to protect itself from China, Russia and the US was “very insulting”. He said European nations should pay more into the Nato budget rather than increase their spending on another defence group. And in a series of blistering tweets this week Mr Trump attacked Mr Macron’s popularity ratings and claimed the French would be speaking German if it wasn’t for the United States.
Mr Le Maire said Mr Trump’s outburst is “an extra incentive” to create a “real” army.
He told France Inter radio Europe had to defend itself and “assert its sovereignty”.
He said: “When we read this tweet, it’s an extra incentive to press ahead with Emmanuel Macron’s EU army proposal.
“The question today isn’t so much ‘what do we respond to Donald Trump?’ but whether we as Europeans have the guts to show the world what we’re capable of.
“The European Union must be able to defend itself … assert its sovereignty and defend its economic interests.”
Mr Macron’s response to Mr Trump’s Twitter storm was more subdued than his finance chief’s.
The French centrist, who hosted the US President and First Lady in Paris armistice centenary commemorations, stressed his while Europe needed a real army to reduce its dependency on America for defence, he had not said that the force was needed to protect Europe from the US.
Mr Macron’s retraction momentarily pacified Mr Trump, who was back in fight mode on Tuesday morning.
In a flurry of scathing early morning tweets, Mr Trump wrote yesterday: “Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the US, China and Russia.
“But it was Germany in World Wars 1 & 2 – How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the US came along. Pay for NATO or not!”
Asked to comment on the bruising remarks, the French presidency said it had nothing to say, but stressed that Mr Macron had made his points about a European army and European defence very clear to Mr Trump during the bilateral talks they held in Paris on Saturday.