Australian foreign minister takes jab at Trump's weight after US president tells Brigitte Macron she is 'in great shape'

'I wonder if she could say the same of him'

Mr Trump was in France last week on his first official visit to Paris (Getty Images)

The normally steely and contained foreign minister of Australia has put aside her usual fidelity to party talking points for just a moment to respond to Donald Trump’s comments about the appearance of the first lady of France.

Julie Bishop, who also serves as the deputy leader of the country’s right-leaning Liberal Party, said that Mr Trump’s comment that Brigitte Macron was in “good shape” were peculiar.

“I’d be taken aback, I think,” she said during a televised interview when asked how she’d respond to those comments. “It’s a rather interesting comment to make. I wonder if she could say the same of him.”

She demurred when asked if the comments were “condescending,” however. It’s not her style to individually comment on interactions between other people, she said.

“Likewise, I don’t run a commentary on his Twitter account,” Ms Bishop said.

Ms Bishop hasn’t been particularly critical of Mr Trump, however, and has often been supportive of the US President.

“We share a common view on many issues, so we will continue to work very closely with the Trump administration,” she said in January.

Mr Trump’s comments to Ms Macron came during his first official visit to France to celebrate Bastille Day after an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron. Mr Trump complimented the French President’s wife after a tour of the museum of Les Invalides when the two presidents were saying goodbye to their wives.

The US President has made similar comments about women since his inauguration this year. During a phone call to congratulate the newly elected prime minister of Ireland last month, he reportedly stopped the conversation in order to provide his assessment of a female Irish journalist.

She “has a nice smile on her face,” Mr Trump reportedly told Leo Varadkar of a reporter in the Oval Office.

Caitriona Perry, that journalist, later tweeted that it was a “bizarre moment”.