'Creation of chaos' Why texts were leaked

Donald Trump leaking private texts from Emmanuel Macron risks the basic level of trust that allows two leaders to communicate

- Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

The words private and confidential have never meant a great deal to Donald Trump.

In his discussions with other world leaders he has never operated much of a filter, happy to provide not just the fact of a conversation, but also its content and tone, with descriptions all the way from beautiful to nasty.

But it is a new development (barring bits of a mildly solicitous message from the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year) for him to simply copy and paste the entirety of private messages on to social media as he did in the case of the French president Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to set up a G7 meeting in Paris to discuss Greenland, Ukraine and Syria.

The publication of Macron’s message was designed to hurt, just as the message attacking Keir Starmer was intended to wound. Fortunately for Macron, proposing a G7 meeting - a typically bold Macron initiative - did not reveal him saying one thing in public and something else in private. The views he expressed on Greenland, Syria, Iran and the need to work in tandem were also concisely, if slightly fawningly expressed, and largely in line with his public views.