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US President Donald Trump was shot on Saturday after canceling a visit to a US World War I military cemetery in France due to rainy weather.
Trump, who is in France to commemorate the centenary of the end of the war, and his wife Melania had to go by helicopter to the battlefield and to the Belleau Wood cemetery where the US marines objected to the German forces in 1918.
"The trip of the President and First Lady to the American Cemetery and Memorial in Ainse-Marne has been canceled due to scheduling problems and logistical problems caused by weather conditions," said a statement from the White House.
Instead, Trump sent his chief of staff, General John Kelly, and his president, General Joe Dunford, to his seat on the site, 80 kilometers northeast of Paris.
Some saw Trump's failure to show Belleau Wood as a sign of disrespect for the American soldiers who fought and died in the trenches.
More than 7,000 people were killed or wounded at the Battle of Bellau Wood in June 1918. The cemetery contains the graves of 2,289 killed in action.
This visit was one of two visits that Trump had planned in the wartime cemeteries coinciding with Veterans Day in the United States.
The cancellation annoyed some critics, with some saying he was worried about embarrbading his hair and others noting that the rain had not stopped French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel or Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to visit.
"They died in the face of the enemy and this pathetic @realDonaldTrump inadequate could not even defy the time he was doing to pay homage to The Fallen," tweeted Nicholas Soames, Conservative MP and grandson of Winston Churchill.
"Donald Trump is complaining of having to stand in the rain, to talk about the Pittsburgh Mbadacre, because it stung his hair (more)," tweeted the VoteVets veterans' lobby.
"Today, he will not pay homage to the fallen American heroes of the First World War and will stay in his hotel room because of the rain."
Some likened Trump to his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.
"Unlike Trump, a bit of rain has never prevented President Obama from honoring our fallen war heroes on Veterans Day," said Adam Blickstein, former Pentagon official, accompanied by the 39, a picture of Obama wearing a wreath at a memorial ceremony in the rain.
While some wondered why Trump had not made the one-hour drive by road, White House insiders pointed out that organizing a presidential motorcade, usually involving dozens of vehicles, would be a daunting task at the time. last minute.
Sunday, Trump must go to a cemetery in Suresnes, suburbs of Paris.
He will also join about 70 other world leaders for a solemn ceremony in front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
On Saturday, Macron and Merkel traveled to Compiegne in northeastern France to unveil a plaque in the clearing where the signing of the First World War armistice was signed.
Trudeau visited Canada's memorial at Vimy, near Lille.
© 2018 AFP
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