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In France, Presidents Macron and Trump Seek Common Ground

HeadlineJul 14, 2017

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed President Donald Trump to Paris Thursday, saying he was prepared to set aside differences over Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord in order to work together on other issues.

President Emmanuel Macron: “I disagree with the way the Paris Agreement and its importance is being interpreted by the U.S. We talked about this disagreement, as we should amongst leaders, before and after the decision taken by President Trump. Should this get in the way of the discussions on all other subjects? Definitely not, under no circumstances.”

Macron said France was on target to increase the size of its military budget to 2 percent of the nation’s economic output—a key demand of Trump to NATO allies. Meanwhile, President Trump floated the possibility of reversing his plan to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

President Donald Trump: “Yeah, I mean, something could happen with respect to the Paris accord. We’ll see what happens. But we will talk about that over the coming period of time. And if it happens, that will be wonderful. And if it doesn’t, that will be OK, too.”

As Trump and Macron met, hundreds of protesters packed a designated protest area of Paris dubbed the “no-Trump zone.” This is French citizen Lucy Carpenter.

Lucy Carpenter: “We’re just protesting a bunch of the things that Trump has been sort of implementing or standing for that we don’t stand for or don’t agree with, such as the climate change—pulling out of the climate change conference and standing against the rights of immigrants and being misogynistic, being homophobic—all of those things.”

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