The Japan Times - 'Real deal': Trump gushes about Versailles palace at G7

"The French president, who happens to be a very nice man, invited me to dinner at Versailles," he said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the French lakeside resort of Evian.

Keen to avoid a repeat of the last G7 summit in Canada, when Trump cut his visit short, Macron has planned a one-on-one dinner with the mercurial US leader at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday after the summit concludes.

Trump -- who has likened himself to a "king" and made no secret of his fondness for pomp and circumstance -- acknowledged the dinner would delay his return home, but said he did not mind.

"Versailles is not gold leaf. It's the real deal. And I said, I'd like to do it," Trump said.

"All it means is that I get home later in the evening, meaning early in the morning. And I'm not a big sleeper anyway."

He vowed to be early in the Oval Office and said "I won't lose any time".

Global leaders have often resorted to a combination of flattery and pageantry in an effort to play to Trump.

Since returning to power, Trump has reshaped Washington in his own style.

The famed Oval Office now drips with gold ornaments, the once low-key elegant Rose Garden has been paved over, and the entire East Wing of the White House has been torn down with plans to make way for a giant ballroom.

The French president, hosting what is his final G7 summit before the end of his term next year, has insisted the evening at Versailles will not be a "gala" dinner.

But the move has drawn criticism from some French politicians, who accuse Macron of rolling out the red carpet for Trump.

Hard-left lawmaker Mathilde Panot said Trump had insulted France and Europe on multiple occasions, adding that Macron "could have found a better way to end his term than to invite a supremacist president with such pomp".

"Flattery does not work," Panot said.

Y.Watanabe--JT