France’s prime minister tears into Trump’s attack on Zelenskyy as a staggering show of ‘brutality’
Mar 3, 2025, 9:02 AM
President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)
PARIS (AP) 鈥� France’s prime minister tore Monday into U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 Oval Office thrashing of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling it a staggering show of 鈥渂rutality鈥� that aimed to humiliate Ukraine鈥檚 leader.
The extraordinarily frank criticism from Prime Minister Fran莽ois Bayrou, speaking in a parliamentary debate on Ukraine, diverged from the more nuanced tone that French President Emmanuel Macron has adopted in the wake of the clash at the White House on Friday and dropped the diplomatic niceties that customarily mark French-US relations.
鈥淥n Friday night, in the Oval Office of the White House, a staggering scene unfurled before the lenses of the entire world, marked by brutality, a desire to humiliate, with the goal of making Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fold through threats,鈥� Bayrou said.
“President Zelenskyy did not fold and I think we can show him our appreciation,” Bayrou continued.
Lawmakers got to their feet in the National Assembly chamber to applaud.
