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‘I love France, I love your wine’: Trump’s bizarre first phone call with Hollande

US president Donald Trump told France's former head of state François Hollande that he "loved France, French people and French wine" before asking for his help in a bizarre phone call shortly after being elected, a former Elysée aide has revealed.

Published: 7 November 2017 14:53 CET

'I love France, I love your wine': Trump's bizarre first phone call with Hollande

Photo: AFP

The strange conversation between the pair was detailed in a new book by Gaspard Gantzer, an advisor to Hollande during his time in the Elysée Palace.

According to Gantzer, Trump called Hollande on November 11th last year two days after his shock election victory over Hillary Clinton.

When Hollande picked up the phone Trump said: “Mister President, I am delighted to talk to you. You are a great president, a great leader, a great man. It is such an honour.”

Hollande is reportedly left in silence. Given he was used to hearing how he was France's most unpopular president in history, it's no surprise he was left stunned by Trump's eulogizing.

After a few seconds of silence the advisor says Trump started his ode to France.

“I love France, I love French people, I love your country, I love Paris, I love your wine, I love…” said Trump before Hollande cut him off.

“It was clear, Donald Trump was mocking us. He was taking us for idiots,” wrote Gantzer. Trump's words were in contrast to those adopted during a campaign speech when he said: “I wouldn't go to France. France is no longer France.”

Premier échange téléphonique entre @fhollande et @realDonaldTrump raconté par @gaspardgantzer @EditionsFayard #LaPolitiqueEstUnSportDeCombat pic.twitter.com/MtHtStHylM

— Romain Bongibault (@romainbgb) November 6, 2017

Hollande then tried to steer the conversation towards more serious matters and listed a series of issues that the countries must work together on, such as the fight against terrorism, the war in Syria and Iraq, as well as putting the Paris climate deal into action.

Trump apparently responded: “Everything you want” before a long “yeaaaahhhh”, Gantzer said. Trump has since signaled his intention to pull the US out of the Paris climate deal, much to the anger of Hollande's successor Emmanuel Macron.

The advisor said the conversation then took another bizarre twist when Trump asked Hollande for advice “three times” on who to include in his new government.

“You know my country. You know many great Americans. And you are one of the greatest leaders in the world, so let me ask you a question: could you help me with the recruiting of my new staff. I need recommendations.”

Gantzer said that Trump “was making so much fun of them it became funny.”

He said when Hollande had finally put the phone down, everyone in the room was aghast, not least the former French president. But he did not include what Hollande said.

The official report of the phone call was slightly different to Gantzer's account.

After the call the Elysée's press team announced the pair had “stressed their willingness to work together” and they had talked of the common issues their country's shared “to clarify their positions”.

“They also stressed to each other the values the two countries have in common, the friendship between France and the United States.”

Trump visited Paris in July when he was wined and dined by Macron at a top restaurant on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower before being the special guest at the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Elysées.

Trump's trip was overshadowed somewhat by his inappropriate remarks about Macron's wife Brigitte.

Trump's 'inappropriate' comments about Brigitte Macron's body mar Paris visit

Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.