Photo Credit: Margo Martin/ X

French President Emmanuel Macron met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, amid significant differences on how to move forward.

Macron, the first European leader to visit Trump since his return to power a month ago, attended a morning session at the White House. The discussions lasted an hour and 45 minutes, including a video conference with other G7 leaders focused on Ukraine. As he left the White House to return to the Blair House guest residence, Macron described his welcome as “very good, very friendly.”

“We had the video conference in the Oval Office with the G7,” he stated.

Trump and his administration have been negotiating a revenue-sharing deal with Ukraine to reclaim some of the funds provided by the previous Biden administration in the form of military aid. Over the weekend, Trump expressed confidence that an agreement would be reached soon.

However, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected U.S. demands for $500 billion in mineral wealth to compensate for wartime assistance. Zelenskiy contended that the aid received thus far did not approach that sum and lacked concrete security guarantees for Ukraine.

Macron aims to leverage his rapport with Trump, built during their first presidential terms, to shape U.S. policy on Ukraine. He warned against conceding to a deal that would weaken Ukraine’s position and embolden adversaries like China and Iran.

“I will tell him: deep down you cannot be weak in the face of President Putin. It’s not you, it’s not what you’re made of and it’s not in your interests,” Macron stated in an hour-long social media Q&A before his White House visit.