Trump heads to Versailles as Macron faces row over lavish reception

US President Donald Trump will be welcomed at the Château de Versailles on Wednesday evening for a grand reception with Emmanuel Macron, as France marks the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States in the place where the treaty of independence was signed.

Issued on: 17/06/2026 - 12:57

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The G7 summit ends on Wednesday 17 June, but Macron and his American counterpart are not parting ways immediately. The two presidents are due to meet again at Versailles for a reception billed as lavish, in a setting loaded with history and symbolism.

The dinner has created controversy in France, where some are asking whether it is too generous a gift for Trump, who has not always been gentle with Europeans since his return to the White House.

The debate has drawn reaction from across the political spectrum, from fierce criticism on the left to more measured support from parties that see the event as part of the normal work of international diplomacy.

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Political criticism

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) is among the most hostile to the American president. The party’s National Assembly group has sharply criticised the invitation and the honours being offered to Trump at Versailles.

“Macron could have found a better way to end his term than inviting a supremacist president with great pomp,” Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI parliamentary group in the Assemblée Nationale, said.

The anti-Trump camp is not united, however. On the left, the Socialists have taken a more restrained line, saying the dinner should not automatically become another political row.

“I am among those who believe that we do not have to create a controversy every day,” Socialist MP Romain Eskenazi said. “I think this dinner had been planned for a long time. It does not seem shocking to me to maintain it.”

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Diplomatic theatre

The idea that the invitation is part of normal diplomacy is shared by Philippe Ballard, an MP from the far-right National Rally (RN). For Ballard, there is nothing unusual about inviting the president of  one of the world’ major  power, especially to a place with such strong symbolic value.

“That he should be at Versailles so that we can show him what French greatness did in past centuries, I do not really see where the problem is,” Ballard said.

On the form of the reception, the centre-right Les Républicains also see no objection. But for the right, the question is whether the ambition behind the dinner matches the setting and the message France wants to send.

Antoine Vermorel, an MP from Les Républicains, said he hoped the dinner would help put France back at the centre of the stage. “The real underlying question is: is France still a ‘Sun King’ on the international stage? And unfortunately, I am not certain.”

That remark goes to the heart of the debate around the Versailles reception. The palace, with its gilded rooms and powerful image of French history, is being used for a meeting with a president known for his taste for gold. But the political question in Paris is whether the setting will serve French influence or merely flatter Trump.

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French interests

For Macron’s camp, the answer is clear. The dinner is being presented as a way to defend French interests at the highest level, not as a simple social event or an empty show of splendour.

“Defending our interests is not done simply through phone calls and small meetings in corridors. It is also done through this kind of event, and I think that is what we must remember,” Macronist MP Prisca Thevenot said.

Versailles itself gives the evening much of its gravitas. The château is the place where the treaty recognising American independence was signed, and the dinner is linked to the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States.

The American president has made clear that he is pleased by the invitation. “Versailles is not gold-plated, it is the real thing,” Trump said on the sidelines of the G7.

This article has been adapted from an original report by RFI in French