# Macron and the airplane steps

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Macron and the airplane steps," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/macron-and-the-airplane-steps/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Asked what he thought was behind the French president's bruised appearance at Davos, John Kiriakou gave the blunt answer — "honestly, I think she hits him" — and dated his own change of mind to the footage at the top of the airplane steps.*

- **Subject:** Emmanuel Macron's appearance at Davos, January 2026
- **The hypothesis put to him:** A black eye, or an eye condition concealed by tinted lenses
- **Kiriakou's answer:** "Honestly, I think she hits him"
- **What changed his mind:** The footage at the top of the airplane steps
- **His conclusion:** "I think he's an abused spouse"

**Macron and the airplane steps** is a brief exchange on DeProgram of 26 January 2026 in which [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) was asked, by way of a viewer question about the French president's Davos speech, what he thought had happened to the man's face.

## The question, and the alternative

The host set out two possibilities before turning to Kiriakou. One was a medical explanation — a retinal or light-sensitivity problem of the kind managed with tinted or graduated lenses, and therefore not requiring aviator sunglasses to conceal. The other was that there was something to conceal. *"He either has an eye problem or he's got something he's covering up. Those are the two possibilities."* The odds offered on the first were low.[1][2]

The question was then put directly: *"What do you think, John? What do you think happened there?"*[3]

## The answer

Kiriakou did not hedge. *"Honestly, I think she hits him."* Asked to confirm, he said it again: *"I do. I think she hits him."*[3]

What distinguishes his answer from the speculation around it is that he attaches a specific moment to his own change of mind. *"I never believed that until the scene at the top of the airplane steps."*[4]

His conclusion was stated in five words: *"So yeah, I think he's an abused spouse."*[4]

## Why it was being discussed at all

The surrounding conversation was not primarily about the marriage. The host's argument was that a head of government publicly identified as an abused man could, by naming it, do for male victims of domestic violence what an athlete's disclosure once did for public attitudes to another illness — a proposal Kiriakou heard out without endorsing.[2][3]

Kiriakou's own contribution stays at the level of what he thinks he saw. He offers no source, no reporting and no institutional knowledge; the passage is included here because it is one of the few instances in the corpus of him stating a flat belief about a serving foreign leader's private life, and because he is careful to say when he did not believe it.

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-01-26), at 42:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw_Ta_maSFs&t=2563s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-26-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-01-26), at 43:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw_Ta_maSFs&t=2594s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-26-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-01-26), at 43:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw_Ta_maSFs&t=2627s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-26-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-01-26), at 44:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw_Ta_maSFs&t=2658s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-01-26-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/macron-and-the-airplane-steps/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt