Macron's Vietnam Visit Overshadowed by Viral Slap Video, Mounting Diplomatic Doubts
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - French President Emmanuel Macron's arrival in Vietnam was marred by controversy after a viral video appeared to show his wife, Brigitte Macron, striking him in the face during a moment caught on camera.
The footage, captured by the Associated Press in Hanoi on Sunday evening, shows the aircraft door opening with Macron at the entrance.
Moments later, Brigitte’s hands appear from the side, pushing her husband’s face away in what many observers interpreted as a public reprimand.
Macron briefly recoils before composing himself and waving to the crowd.
Brigitte remains largely out of view behind the aircraft fuselage, her expression unreadable.
The couple then descend the plane’s stairs, where Brigitte pointedly refuses her husband’s extended arm, fueling further speculation.
Initially, the Élysée Palace denied the footage’s authenticity.
Once verified, officials scrambled to portray the exchange as a private joke between spouses.
"It was a moment of closeness," one official insisted, characterizing the shove as part of a harmless, light-hearted exchange.
Another presidential aide echoed the sentiment, calling it a "moment of decompressing" before the start of a tense diplomatic tour.
Blame for the video’s viral spread was quickly placed on pro-Russian social media accounts, which have increasingly targeted the French leader.
Still, the damage was done.
The incident follows closely on the heels of another controversy earlier this month, when false claims circulated online that Macron had hidden cocaine during a meeting with UK Labour leader Keir Starmer and Germany’s Friedrich Merz.
That video, taken aboard a train to Ukraine, showed a white object on the table — later confirmed by French officials to be a tissue.
Nonetheless, Macron continues to find himself at the center of viral firestorms that detract from his diplomatic agenda.
His current trip — the first by a French president to Vietnam in nearly a decade — is meant to revive France’s fading influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
