French President Emmanuel Macron has downplayed a viral video showing his wife Brigitte pushing his face away as they disembarked from a plane in Vietnam. Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, Macron addressed the clip directly, pushing back against speculation it sparked. “There’s a video showing me joking and teasing my wife and somehow that becomes a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe, with people even coming up with theories to explain it,” Macron said.
Macron acknowledged the footage was genuine but criticized how it had been weaponized. “The videos are all real, and yes, sometimes people tamper with them, but people are attributing all kinds of nonsense to them.” The clip shows Macron appearing in the doorway, followed by Brigitte’s sudden shove. Macron appears momentarily surprised but quickly regains composure and waves to the press.
The Élysée initially denied the incident before later downplaying its significance, describing it as a “moment of togetherness” between the couple. According to an Élysée source, “It was a moment when the president and his wife were unwinding one last time before the trip began, playfully teasing each other.” The source added that pro-Russian trolls quickly spun the moment into controversy, fueling conspiracy theories.
This incident comes as Macron faces another wave of online disinformation. Earlier, the Élysée dismissed a viral claim that Macron was using cocaine aboard a train to Kyiv alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The rumor, traced back to pro-Russian accounts, falsely claimed a crumpled tissue Macron picked up was a cocaine bag. The Élysée posted a rebuttal online, saying, “This is a tissue. For blowing your nose… When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation makes a simple tissue look like drugs”.
French officials have condemned the campaign as part of ongoing efforts by Moscow to weaken Western unity on Ukraine and manipulate peace discussions through false narratives and social media manipulation.