[ad_1]
Breaking News Emails
Receive last minute alerts and special reports. News and stories that matter, delivered the mornings of the week.
/ Update
By Carol E. Lee and Kristen Welker
PARIS – The White House's decision Saturday to suspend the president's visit to a cemetery for US soldiers killed in action due to weather conditions is creating a bit of its own storm.
President Donald Trump was scheduled to take a 30-minute helicopter ride from Paris to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and the Belleau Memorial in France. But the rainy weather forecast for the city made it too risky for him to fly safely, the White House announced a few hours before his arrival at the cemetery.
"The visit of the president and the first lady to the American cemetery and the American memorial of Aisne-Marne has been canceled due to scheduling problems and logistical problems caused by the weather conditions", announced the white.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, went to the cemetery in a small procession of vehicles. The trip took about 90 minutes. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled a similar distance by car to a commemorative event in northern France.
The Trump's call by the White House to the weather is not up to some observers.
François Heisbourg, a political analyst and former Macron campaign advisor, posted a photo of a Parisian cyclist on Twitter and wrote that the climate that prevented Trump from ending up in the cemetery was: "Nothing can be controlled by a cyclist, let alone a presidential helicopter. "
A member of the British Parliament and grandson of the legendary British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Nicholas Soames, has shown himself even more critical, calling Mr. Trump "pathetic" and "inadequate" on Twitter because "He could not even defy the climate to pay his respects." The dead "who" died face to face with the enemy. "
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also participated in armistice events outside the city today, on a battlefield about two hours drive north of Paris.
Trump is in Paris for the weekend with dozens of other world leaders to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. On Sunday, he has to attend an event marking Armistice Day and visit a cemetery where Americans who died in two world wars are. buried.
Kelly Magsamen, who served on the National Security Council under the Republican and Democrat Presidents, said that he was displaying "a really low energy", so Trump "would not mind honoring the sacrifice of soldiers. Americans in the First World War because of the rain, all the others were able to do it today. "
Asked about the critics, the White House underlined its initial statement on this subject. The White House generally takes into account various factors when it comes to bad weather during a call from the president, including the possibility of changing forecasts and the height of the cloud ceiling.
The White House did not explain why the president had chosen not to marry while taking a helicopter was no longer an option. Instead, the president returned to the United States ambassador to the French residence, where he and the first lady stayed in Paris, for about four and a half hours.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also planned to be present, but he was also deterred by "scheduling and logistical problems caused by the weather," according to one of his aides.
More than 2,000 soldiers are buried in the First World War cemetery, many of whom died at the Battle of Belleau Wood. Kelly and Dunford, who were joined by their wives, laid a wreath in front of the cemetery chapel and ran through the rows of tombstones under a low cloud cover and a fine rain.
After his visit to the city of Compiegne, where Germany and France signed the 1918 Armistice, Macron posted a photo of the two leaders on the site with one word – "United" – which means French "united".
[ad_2]Source link
