How Macron won Trump round at the G7. Until the next bust-up.

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France  — The decisive moment at the summit of G7 leaders in France came on Tuesday, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy brought out snapshots of Kyiv’s burning Dormition cathedral, and showed them to Donald Trump.

The sight of the blazing golden domes and the damage inflicted by a Russian airstrike on the 11th-century architectural treasure visibly touched the U.S. president, according to three G7 officials.

They sensed Zelenskyy’s intervention was probably the final push that brought Trump round to backing Ukraine more firmly in Wednesday’s joint declaration. “I think [he] was genuinely moved,” said one of the G7 officials, who was granted anonymity to discuss private meetings.

While it was Zelenskyy who brandished the photographs, it was French President Emmanuel Macron who — as host — had choreographed the summit and worked out exactly how to appeal to the erratic American leader.

While the initial expectation for the meeting in the Alpine spa town of ´´Évian-les-Bains was of a diplomatic washout — where even stopping Trump from bailing out early would be deemed a success — Macron ultimately pulled off a surprising coup by winning Trump round and pressing him to commit to more military support to Kyiv.

It was a diplomatic win built on years of working out how to flatter Trump and align with his priorities — in this case, on everything from mine-sweepers to Chinese rare earths.

When it came to bringing him round on Ukraine, Macron led the other G7 leaders at a dinner on Monday night, where they tailored their messaging to chime with Trump’s binary view of global power politics, casting Ukraine as a winner and Russia as a loser in the latest phase of the war.

Overlooking Lake Geneva at Monday’s dinner, the assembled G7 leaders discussed the Middle East at length and, strategically, lavished praise on Trump’s deal with Iran. 

“They explained to Trump, all together, that Zelenskyy was winning because Russia … cannot cross the frontline and is even losing territory,” a European diplomat said. 

“And Russia is continuing to hit civilians, sacred sites,” the diplomat added. The big message was that a wounded Moscow is getting desperate and is striking out wildly.  

Caught on a hot mic the following day, Macron told Zelenskyy the conversation had been “difficult,” before discussing how to best deal with Trump.

Little had been left to chance. 

Workers build a temporary structure in the aftermath of Russian strikes that hit the Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv. | Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has a rocky relationship with the French president, praised Macron’s diplomatic skills and acknowledged he had done “an excellent job in a complex moment on the international stage.”

Diplomats noted that there is, of course, no guarantee that Macron’s efforts this week won’t be undone by a single phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But for now at least French diplomats can breathe easier, having avoided the potential blow-ups and failures that could have capsized the last big diplomatic set-piece Macron is expected to host.

Flattery and fickleness

Macron himself bristles at the idea that he simply pandered to the U.S. president to win him over.

It’s easy to see where that accusation comes from. For months, the French president worked tirelessly to get Trump to come to France and to accommodate him at the G7. First, he shifted the date of the summit — to allow the U.S. president to watch a cage fight on the White House lawn on his birthday — then tailored the guest list, and finally treated him to an opulent dinner at the Palace of Versailles. (The menu was asparagus, chicken Bourbonnais, cheese and chocolate tart.)

In Évian-les-Bains, Trump’s late arrivals and jibes, including his assertion at a session on the economy that he is “the boss,” were glossed over. A final communiqué congratulated Trump not once but three times on his deal with Iran.  

But although Macron obviously bent over backwards to keep Trump happy, a question from a journalist as to whether Trump was worth all that effort hit a raw nerve. Macron snapped back that he had only made progress by holding to his principled lines, and said his public disagreements with Trump spoke for themselves. 

“If I had not held constant and clear positions in recent months, you could doubt the power dynamic” with Trump, he said. “On the question of Greenland, on Ukraine’s territorial integrity … I’ve always been very clear whether in Washington or in Davos.” 

Ultimately, all the fawning did pay dividends. 

The G7 countries, including the United States, backed more sanctions against Russia and on Wednesday pledged “unwavering support” for Kyiv, promising new defense capacities while praising its “new momentum” on the battlefield. 

“The tide is turning on Ukraine,” European Council President António Costa tweeted.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said: “There has been a change in the United States’ position in the discussions on Ukraine, we consider this position to be more realistic regarding the situation on the battlefield.” 

Trump, Macron and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy take part in a working session at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains on June 16, 2026. | Thibault Camus /AFP via Getty Images

The joint declaration on critical minerals also marked a win for the French presidency as leaders signed off on a precise, measurable commitment: reducing their dependency on Chinese rare earths by 2030.

Macron was quick to claim victory. “Objectively, this G7 is a success,” he said Wednesday.

But there will always be a fear, given Trump’s notoriously changeable approach to subjects that matter to Europeans, that the gains may be short-lived. 

“That Trump changes his mind all the time is the reality we all live in,” said the European diplomat cited above.   

Diplomatic tightrope

A lot could have gone wrong.

Ahead of his arrival in Évian-les-Bains, Trump once again threatened to slap a 100 percent tariff on French wine over France’s digital services tax on tech firms. Macron retorted that he would have “a respectful but firm discussion” with the U.S. president. 

Macron then failed to turn up for a planned official welcome for Trump’s arrival, and didn’t appear very enthusiastic in the ensuing bilateral meeting. 

Asked whether Trump’s repeated threats and jibes bothered him, Macron insisted in an interview with TF1 that he remained “pragmatic.” 

“After so many years, if I held a grudge, I would have some problems … Trump needs to stay until the end so that we can reach some agreements,” he said. 

Still, Macron and his allies also believed that, for once, they held some cards in their dealings with Trump. The United States needs European mine-clearing capacities to re-open the Strait of Hormuz and stabilize the world’s oil trade after the war in Iran, something Trump repeatedly demanded at the G7 summit. 

The second phase of U.S.-Iran talks, if the first deal is signed Friday, will address Iran’s nuclear program and will involve France, Germany and the U.K., the original custodians of the 2015 U.N. sanctions against Iran. 

The U.S. is also coming under heavy pressure at home over fears the provisional accord with Iran will fall apart. “Trump needs our support. We have given him some comfort,” the European official said. 

Crucially, however, even Trump appeared satisfied with the outcome in France, for now at least. 

“I think President Macron … did a great job, by the way, did a really fantastic job,” he said.

Only on leaving did Trump realise there was something he should have brought up amid all the bonhomie with the French leader.

“We didn’t discuss Greenland. I should’ve discussed Greenland.”