Trump says his advice to Macron is 'make sure the door remains closed'
US president Donald Trump said his advice for French president Emmanuel Macron, who has been shown on a video through an open plane door being pushed in the face by his wife, was "make sure the door remains closed".
Asked about the incident by reporters in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said he had spoken to Mr Macron in the wake of the video that showed his wife, Brigitte, giving him a shove on their plane.
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Mr Macron has shrugged off the incident as a moment of playfulness. "He's fine," Mr Trump said of Mr Macron.
In the video,
Brigitte Macron
appeared to shove her husband before he descended from the presidential plane late on Sunday, causing him to step back before he recovered and waved to the cameras at the foot of the stairs of the aircraft.
She remained momentarily hidden behind the plane's fuselage, blocking any view of her body language. The couple then descended the steps together.
An official played down the moment, denying it showed an argument between the couple, who have been married since 2007: "It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh."
"It was a moment of closeness," the official said.
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Mr Macron's visit to Vietnam, the first by a French president in almost a decade, comes as he aims to boost France's influence in its former colony.
Vietnam, which has a heavily export-driven economy, has made concessions to the US in trade talks in a bid to avoid 46 per cent tariffs. But Brussels has concerns that Vietnam's efforts to buy more American goods could come at Europe's expense.
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