LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that French President Emmanuel Macron had been “very insulting” by describing NATO as “brain dead” as the two leaders prepared to attend a NATO summit.

“It’s a tough statement, though, when you make a statement like that, that is a very, very nasty statement to essentially 28, including them, 28 countries,” Trump told reporters as he met the head of NATO in London.

“I think that, you know, you have a very high unemployment rate in France. France is not doing well economically at all. They’re starting to tax other people’s products so therefore we go and tax them.” (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Steve Holland Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Kate Holton)