Macron narrowly beats other leaders to congratulate Trump on election victory

PARIS  —  French President Emmanuel Macron warmly welcomed Donald Trump back to the White House, in the first message of congratulations from a major U.S. ally to the Republican candidate.
The French president wrote on X he was “ready to work together” with Trump, “as [they] did during four years,” in a reference to the former U.S. president’s first term. Macron’s message was quickly followed by similar ones the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
On Wednesday morning in Europe, Trump was closing in on victory with the Republicans taking Pennsylvania and other key states.
Macron enjoyed a mercurial relationship with Trump during his first four years in office, sometimes quite cordial while at other times openly hostile. Though separated by their politics and their age, Macron and Trump were often seen as having something of bromance together.
In his message of congratulations, Macron said he would work “with [Trump’s] convictions and [his own]” toward “more peace and prosperity,” a veiled reference to Trump’s positions on the war in Ukraine, which he said he wanted to end, and a looming transatlantic trade war.
In rushing to welcome Trump, Macron initially joined a cohort of mainly populist and far-right leaders heaping praise on the Republican candidate such as long-time Trump ally Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
In a second message, Macron said he had spoken to the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the U.S. election and said that they would work toward a “more united, stronger and more sovereign Europe in the new context.”
The French president will be keen to be seen as engaging with Trump, as he faces a rising threat from potential Trump allies, the far right in France, with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party having scored big wins in recent election.