A French government spokesman on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump of a lack of "common decency" for attacking his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Twitter on the third anniversary of a jihadist massacre in Paris.

Asked to react to Trump's tweets mocking Macron's low poll numbers and lashing his defence proposals, spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told reporters: "Yesterday was November 13 when we commemorate the murder of 130 citizens three years ago in Paris and Saint-Denis. So I will reply in English: 'common decency' would have been the appropriate thing." His reaction was the strongest yet by the French government to Trump's astonishing attack on Macron, which came two days after he was the French leader's guest at World War I centenary commemorations in Paris.