There is trolling. And then there is presidential trolling.
President Biden ended his five-day visit to France on Sunday by visiting a cemetery for American soldiers who died in World War I. Of course, this is the kind of thing presidents usually do.
But this particular cemetery was the same one that President Donald J. Trump was scheduled to visit in 2018 before canceling it, citing rain, sparking political uproar. For Mr Biden – who is running again against Mr Trump – the visit to the cemetery was intended to send a message to voters at home.
“America showed up,” he said. “America showed up.”
Mr Biden spoke about the US military during the First World War. But he could just as easily have been talking about Mr. Trump’s refusal to appear six years ago.
Asked directly what he wanted to say about his rival in this year’s presidential race, Mr. Biden paused for a moment.
“Further questions?” he said.
But the decision to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, at the foot of the hill where the Battle of Belleau Wood was fought, was no coincidence. Having already spent two days in Normandy honoring the American soldiers who landed on the beaches there on D-Day in 1944, Mr. Biden certainly didn’t need to add another event honoring veterans. But obviously the opportunity was too good to pass up.
Neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump have ever served in the military, and both have had their disagreements with generals as commander in chief. But Mr. Biden’s son, Beau Biden, served in the Army in Iraq and the president has expressed strong solidarity with veterans. By contrast, Mr. Trump has often denigrated those who have served, a point Mr. Biden sought to make during his visit on Sunday.
“Every time I show up at a military site where veterans are buried, it brings back memories of my grandfather and mother talking about the loss of a son and a brother in the South Pacific,” Mr. Biden said Sunday after the placement told reporters a wreath near the cemetery chapel. “And I’m thinking about my son Beau.”
He also used the moment to indirectly anger Mr. Trump, who espoused an “America First” ideology and mocked NATO’s role as protector of Europe and who, as president, pulled the United States out of international treaties.
“The idea that we can avoid getting involved in major battles in Europe — that’s just not realistic,” Mr. Biden said. “That’s why it’s so important that we continue to have the alliances we have. Continue to keep NATO strong.”
As a candidate in 2015, Mr. Trump disdained Senator John McCain’s military service and often sounded privately disrespectful toward others who volunteered for military service.
“Everyone who went to that war was a fool,” he was quoted as saying about Vietnam by John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff and a retired Marine general. “I don’t know why you think these guys who get killed or wounded are heroes. They are losers.” Mr. Trump has denied calling soldiers “suckers” and “losers.”
Mr. Trump, who avoided military service in Vietnam because he was diagnosed with bone spurs on his feet that a New York Times report said may have been caused by a doctor as a favor to his father, made it clear during his presidency that he believed that The military owed him loyalty to him personally.
He told aides privately that he didn’t want wounded soldiers at a military parade because it didn’t look good, and asked Mr. Kelly why his generals couldn’t be more loyal “like the German generals” who served Hitler in World War II. Since leaving office, Mr. Trump has publicly suggested that Gen. Mark A. Milley, whom he appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, may deserve execution because he was not loyal enough to him.
The cemetery flap came during a trip in November 2018 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War. Mr. Trump was unhappy when he learned he was scheduled to visit two cemeteries for American soldiers, and when it rained, he said he had canceled the first.
Aides said at the time that the rain made the helicopter flight to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery problematic and that the journey by car would have taken two hours and disrupted Paris traffic. Mr. Kelly traveled in his place along with Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., then chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
Mr. Trump visited another cemetery, Suresnes American Cemetery, just outside Paris, as planned the next day, but by then it was too late to avoid the predictable political backlash.
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2024-06-09 17:39:47
www.nytimes.com
