Chicago Tuesday, August 19th, 2025
A really awkward moment happened at a big world leader meeting back in 2018. A microphone that was still on picked up a private chat between the U.S. President at the time, Donald Trump, and the leader of France. Trump was heard telling the French president, Emmanuel Macron, that Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, really “wants to make a deal” about nuclear weapons.
This was a surprising thing to hear because the meeting was actually a NATO summit. NATO is a group of countries, including the U.S. and France, that are friends and are supposed to protect each other. Russia is often seen as not a friend to NATO. Right after talking about a deal with Russia, Trump got annoyed at Macron for wanting a European army, saying the idea was “very insulting.”
The whole incident showed that Trump had a much friendlier opinion of Putin than many other leaders did. It was also weird because at the same meeting, Trump was loudly complaining that countries in NATO weren’t paying enough for their own defense. The hot mic moment gave everyone a peek at what the leaders really talk about when they think no one is listening.
