Macron responds to Charles III after his joke to Trump: “it would be chic” if Americans spoke French

Charles III’s joke to Donald Trump did not fail to make Emmanuel Macron react. Tuesday evening, during a state dinner at the White House, the king asserted, with humor, that Americans would speak French if the British had not also colonized North America.

“You recently said, Mr. President, that without the United States, European countries would speak German. Dare I say that without us you would speak French,” the sovereign slipped, triggering laughter from the audience.

On X, the French president reshared the video sequence and commented: “That would be chic (that would be chic)”. On the same social network, the Élysée account also reacted to this sequence, writing: “If ever… See you at the next summit of the Francophonie”.

A reaction to the Davos summit speech

The declaration by Charles III – received on a state visit since Monday – refers to remarks made last January at the Davos summit by the American president to the Europeans. Without American support during World War II, “you would speak German and a little bit of Japanese,” he said.

In a speech, the king also mentioned the British and French origins of many toponyms in the United States and joked about the White House’s “readjustments” regarding the $400 million ballroom project wanted by the Republican billionaire.

“I regret to say that we, the British, of course attempted our own project of real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814,” said the sovereign. That year, soldiers from the kingdom set the building on fire.

Charles III also teased his allies by calling the dinner “a vast improvement on the Boston Tea Party,” when in 1773 colonists threw shiploads of heavily taxed British tea into the sea.