Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham questioned the US president on the enrolment of Chinese students at US universities, saying, "they're not the French, they're the Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our intellectual property."

But Trump abruptly cut in to respond, saying: "Do you think the French are better, really? I will tell you, I'm not so sure."

Trump, who has been locked in a trade war with Beijing, has had a well-catalogued hands-on relationship with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, full of muscular handshakes, mutual backslapping and knee-touching for the cameras.

Macron in September even rang the US leader directly to tell him he was being blocked on the street by the presidential convoy in New York as he rushed to a meeting from the UN headquarters.

But the pair's bromance has occasionally been tetchy, with Trump notably opposed to Macron's recognition of a Palestinian state and climate policy.

The US leader has also pushed Europe to step up funding of its own defence through NATO, with Macron part of the continent's multi-pronged charm offensive to keep Trump onside with military support of Ukraine against Russia.

In the Fox interview, Trump switched focus from China to France's taxation policies, which he said were an issue for the United States.

"We've had a lot of problems with the French where we get taxed unfairly on our technology," Trump said.

Trump has previously said he would impose "substantial" extra tariffs on countries that introduced "discriminatory" digital taxes.

The comments were sparked by Ingraham grilling Trump on his administration's back and forth on foreign students.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that Washington would "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students".

However, just a few months later, Trump said the country was going to allow 600,000 Chinese students to "come in".