Overview
- Candace Owens told Tucker Carlson she received a February call from President Trump after Emmanuel Macron’s White House visit asking her to cease claims about France’s first lady.
- She said a senior White House official first relayed the request before Trump personally phoned, expressing confusion over Macron’s intervention.
- White House communications director Steven Cheung declined to comment on private conversations between the president and Owens.
- Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron filed a 219-page defamation suit in Delaware last month and the case remains in the pre-discovery phase under U.S. actual malice standards.
- The dispute underscores clashes between strong First Amendment protections and international defamation claims fueled by baseless anti-trans conspiracy theories.