Donald Trump ‘boasted of having dirt on Macron’s love life’

Donald Trump repeatedly bragged that he knew illicit details of Emmanuel Macron’s sex life, a report claims days after a file on the French president was seized from Trump’s home.

The cordial relationship between the two leaders soon soured. Picture: Getty Images

Donald Trump repeatedly bragged that he knew illicit details of Emmanuel Macron’s sex life, a report has claimed, days after a file on the French president was seized from Trump’s home by the FBI.

Trump boasted to White House associates that he had dirt on the French leader, even claiming that he had gained the information from US intelligence sources, Rolling Stone reported. The article said that the former president was obsessed with the personal life of his French counterpart, 44, and his marriage to Brigitte, 69.

It is three weeks since FBI agents searched Mr Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, removing dozens of classified documents stored at the estate in Florida.

The raid, which uncovered national security material related to US spies and “clandestine human sources”, has left Trump facing a criminal investigation for obstruction of justice and a potential breach of the Espionage Act.

Emmanuel Macron stands with his wife Brigitte Macron after he beat his far-right rival Marine Le Pen for a second five-year term in April this year.

Among the trove of top secret files taken by the FBI, one of the most tantalising was “Item 1a” on the inventory. Labelled “info re: President of France”, the file prompted alarm in Paris and Washington, raising questions of what information Mr Trump had on the French leader and why he had taken it to Florida upon leaving the White House last year.

Now it has emerged that Mr Macron’s personal life had long been a subject of close interest to Mr Trump.

Rolling Stone reported that he delighted in alluding to Mr Macron’s allegedly “naughty” indiscretions and had told allies in the White House that not “very many people know” the Elysee Palace’s secrets. The former president was often light on details of Mr Macron’s habits, sources said, and those Trump regaled with the gossip were uncertain if what they were told was true.

It is not known whether the file the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago was related to Mr Macron’s personal life.

Since its discovery, however, French and US officials have scrambled to work out what information Mr Trump had and whether it was classified or merely a keepsake from his presidency.

The Macrons and the Trumps in 2019. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump had a testy relationship with Mr Macron during his time in office, initially praising his French counterpart as “my guy” and telling reporters that “I like him a lot” when Mr Macron visited the White House in 2018. The leaders even shared an embrace and a peck on the cheek, but relations soured during the final two years of Mr Trump’s presidency.

Tension burst into the open at a fractious meeting of NATO leaders in London in 2019. Mr Trump and Mr Macron clashed over the future of the alliance, as well as Iran, and ISIS fighters entering Europe from Syria. “Let’s be serious,” Mr Macron snapped, after Mr Trump joked about sending ISIS militants to France.

Mr Trump was heard lambasting Mr Macron in a meeting of UN ambassadors. The French president hit back in an interview with The Economist later that year, lamenting that the US was “turning its back” on its European allies, and said the failure of American leadership was “the brain death of NATO”.

Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary, also wrote in a memoir that Mr Trump privately called Mr Macron a “a wuss guy”. During a state visit to Paris in 2017, Mr Trump raised eyebrows when he complimented Brigitte Macron on her figure.

“You’re in such good shape,” he told her.

The Times