Because of rain, President Trump did not attend a scheduled ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France where U.S. war dead from World War I were being honored on Saturday—immediately igniting bipartisan mockery and indignation.
According to a White House statement, Trump remained in his Paris hotel room and did not attend the 100th anniversary commemoration due to “scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather.” The main cause attributed to the logistical difficulties was a light rain that the White House said would have proved difficult for Trump’s Marine One helicopter to fly in. Despite the rain, current political leaders from other countries who lost soldiers at the Battle of Belleau Wood—Canada, Germany, France—all managed to attend, as did White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Joe Dunford.
Liberal commentators were quick to criticize Trump’s seeming lack of fortitude.
But the condemnation wasn’t just from the left. Conservative pundit—and frequent Trump critic—Bill Kristol excoriated the decision.
Former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, alluded to the irony of Trump’s apparent refusal to brave “light rain” to honor troops who had to fight in much more miserable battlefront conditions.
Nicholas Soames—whose grandfather, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, is a favorite icon of Trump’s—lambasted the U.S. President as “pathetic” and “inadequate” for skipping the event.
Some noted the hypocrisy of Trump’s decision to skip the WWI ceremony and his seemingly selective emphasis on patriotism and honoring the military.
And others took to tweeting constrasts between Trump and Obama when it comes to rain and military ceremonies.
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