Teasing Donald Trump mocks NATO ally by mimicking | Political News

President Donald Trump mimicked French President Emmanuel Macron’s accent as he recounted their call, in which he satisfied Macron into agreeing to triple drug costs by threatening to impose a 25% tariff on all French imports to the U.S.

“I said, ‘Emmanuel’, ‘Yes, Donald Donald, thank you so much for calling.’ I said, ‘You’re not going to like this call. You’re gonna have to get your drug prices up.'”, Trump said, mimicking Macron.

‘No, no, no, I can’t do that,’ I said, ‘100% you are going to do it, or I’m gonna put a 25% tariff on all items.’ He said, ‘Donald, I might love to do this for you.'”

Trump has previously also described his negotiations with Macron over drug pricing disparities between the two countries during his address to Republican members of Congress at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, earlier this month. The president said that he told the French president that France must raise prices because Americans are paying “13 occasions” more than French consumers for prescription drugs.

He issued Macron an ultimatum after Macron initially refused, stating that either he would agree to U.S. demands or face a sweeping 25% tariff on French products, including wines and champagnes.

In his address at the Kennedy Center, Trump claimed that France agreed to increase drug prices from $10 per pill to $30, while U.S. prices dropped.

“Donald, you’ve gotten a deal. I would really like to increase my prescription drug costs by 200% or whatever. Whatever you need, Donald, please do not inform the population, I encourage you,” Trump said, imitating Macron, on Jan. 6. Neither Macron nor the French government has yet responded to Trump’s remarks.

Trump did his impression of Macron as he participated in a rural health roundtable on Friday. In December, the Trump administration announced that states would share $10 billion for rural health care through the Rural Health Transformation Program, requiring them to use the funds to handle systemic issues that go away rural Americans without access to good health care.

This comes after the U.S. and Taiwan, a self-governed island that China claims as half of its territory, struck a long-sought commerce settlement that would decrease tariffs on items from Taiwan to 15%, Bloomberg reported.

The settlement would consequence in Taiwanese semiconductor firms growing financing for American operations by $500 billion, the report said. The White House is predicted to announce the phrases of the agreements on Thursday, under which duties on Taiwanese shipments would fall from the earlier 20% charge.

This is the same charge for Japan and South Korea, which reached their agreements with the U.S. last week.