David A. Andelman, visiting scholar at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, wrote an opinion piece for NBC News about Trump’s recent visit to France.
What could have been a sober show of international cooperation and a reaffirmation of transatlantic alliances instead became, once again, an example of America’s tarnishing reputation abroad.
The debacle began, as so many involving the U.S. president do, with a tweet. Trump slammed the French president, badly misconstruing what Macron had actually said about the need for a European defense force (Macron was calling for more cybersecurity, not an army “to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia.”)
It went downhill from there. Once on the ground in Paris, it quickly became quite clear that Trump’s attitude would be coloring much of his stay in Paris. First, there was Trump’s sudden decision not to visit the American cemetery outside Paris at Belleau Wood, site of one of the most horrific battles of World War I in which around 1,800 Americans gave their lives. The White House blamed his absence on a terrible, but it turned out non-existent, rainstorm.
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But the icing on the cake was Trump’s arrival at the Sunday ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in his own mini-motorcade, separated from the other heads of state who marched, arm-in-arm, up a heavily-policed Champs-Elysées. (This decision was due to security concerns, according to the White House.) The only other leader not to march with the rest? Vladimir Putin.