PARIS — President Trump on Thursday defended his eldest son’s decision last June to meet with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer during the election campaign, saying “most people would have taken that meeting” and “nothing happened from the meeting, zero happened from the meeting.”

“My son is a wonderful young man,” Mr. Trump said during a news conference in Paris with President Emmanuel Macron of France. “He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer. Not a government lawyer; a Russian lawyer.”

Mr. Trump came to Paris at the invitation of Mr. Macron to take part in Bastille Day celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into World War I.

As the two leaders, an odd couple on the international stage, faced the news media after a private meeting at the Élysée Palace, they sought to play down sharp differences over trade, immigration and climate change. Mr. Macron looked on as the president defended his son in the scandal over possible links between Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government.