Trump Asks Macron, 'Would You Like Some Nice ISIS Fighters?'
President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron butted heads on Tuesday in London over the issue of France taking custody of its citizens who were captured in Syria and Iraq while fighting for the Islamic State group.
Trump was asked during a news conference with Macron at the NATO summit if he had addressed the issue yet.
The American president replied they had discussed it on other occasions, but not so far during their present time together.
“We have a tremendous amount of captured ISIS fighters over in Syria, and they are all under lock and key, but many are from France, many are from Germany, many are from UK. They are mostly from Europe,” Trump said.
“Would you like some nice ISIS fighters?” Trump asked Macron.
“I could give them to you. You could take every one you want.”
Macron did not answer Trump’s question, instead replying, “Let’s be serious.”
“It is true that you have foreign fighters coming from Europe, but this is a tiny minority of the overall problem we have in the region,” he continued.
The French president then pivoted, saying, “I think No. 1 priority, because it’s not yet finished, is to get rid of ISIS.”
He explained that France will review on a case-by-case basis whether it will allow any of its citizens to be returned to the country.
Trump responded, with a smile, “This is why he’s a great politician, because that’s one of the greatest non-answers I’ve ever heard.”
Fox News reported that Trump’s exchange with Macron came hours after the president criticized the French leader for a “very, very nasty statement” about the NATO alliance.
“I think that’s very insulting.”
President Donald Trump condemns French President Emmanuel Macron’s “nasty” statement about NATO being “brain dead” https://t.co/u44vBIqNJ9 pic.twitter.com/EmDvkBIBs4
— CNN (@CNN) December 3, 2019
“What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” Macron told The Economist in early November.
“So as soon as you have a member who feels they have a right to head off on their own, granted by the United States of America, they do it,” Macron said, referring to Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria following America’s withdrawal of troops from the border of the two countries.
On Tuesday, Macron said he agreed with Trump’s push to get NATO members to allocate more money for their own defense spending.
Macron noted the U.S. has “overinvested” in the alliance for decades.
The 28 member countries agree to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense spending.
Most of the countries spend less than that threshold, including France and Germany, while the U.S. and the U.K. are among a handful of members exceeding their obligations.
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