French President Emmanuel Macron borrowed one of President Donald Trump’s signature phrases when he decried the “ever-growing virus of fake news” during an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump hosted Macron and his wife, Brigitte, for a state visit this week. Macron became the first foreign leader to address a joint of session of Congress during the Trump presidency. During his speech, Macron criticized “fake news” outlets and stories for eroding and inhibiting democracy.

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“To protect our democracies, we have to fight against the ever-growing virus of fake news, which exposes our people to irrational fear and imaginary risks,” Macron told lawmakers, resulting in prolonged applause.

“And let me attribute the fair copyright for this expression ‘fake news,’ especially here,” Macron said as lawmakers greeted his homage to Trump with laughter.

“Without reason, without truth, there is no real democracy, because democracy is about true choices and rational decisions,” Macron said. “The corruption of information is an attempt to corrode the very spirit of our democracies.”

Trump has long decried the constant onslaught of “fake news” reports about himself and his administration and called out various mainstream media outlets, pundits and reporters for demonizing him. Frequent targets of Trump’s include CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and MSNBC.

“So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!” Trump tweeted on March 26.

“Wow, so many Fake News stories today. No matter what I do or say, they will not write or speak truth. The Fake News Media is out of control!” Trump tweeted on October 4.

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In a tweet from Feb. 4, 2017, Trump blasted CNN and “the failing” New York Times, in particular, for “knowingly” not telling the truth, saying the outlets posed “a great danger to our country.” Trump also demanded an “apology” for “all of the incorrect stories” from fake news, which he said was “at an all-time high” in June 2017.

Trump even ripped U.S. media outlets in front of the leaders of the Baltic states and Baltic media members during a joint press conference earlier in April.

“Pick a reporter, please. You can pick a reporter, a Baltic reporter, ideally real news, not fake news. Go ahead. Do you want to pick?” Trump said to Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis as the audience laughed. “Mr. President, pick a reporter from the Baltics.”

Related: Trump Rips ‘Fake News’ American Media in Front of Baltic Press

Although Trump and Macron may not share the same beliefs about what constitutes fake news and what does not, the French president had no qualms about borrowing Trump’s phrase and giving him credit for it in front of Congress.

Although Trump is a conservative populist and Macron is a center-left globalist, the two leaders developed what Macron referred to as a “special relationship” during an interview with “Fox News Sunday.”

Macron also said that he and Trump are “the mavericks of the systems on both sides” who weren’t expected to win their respective elections, noting that they “are not part of the classical political system.”

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.