Newly re-elected, will American President Donald Trump one day come to the November 11 ceremonies in Picardy?
Nothing less certain after his missed appointment on this occasion in 2018.
On Saturday November 10, 2018, while visiting France, he had to go to the Bois-Belleau cemetery in Aisne.. Bois Belleau is a place of memory for the American armed forces, having been the scene of a founding battle of the Marine Corps in the summer of 1918.
But his visit as part of the centenary of the Great War (1914-1918) was canceled at the last moment. Official reason: due to bad weather, the American head of state's helicopter was unable to land.
“A graveyard full of losers”
The reality seemed quite different since John Kelly, former chief of staff to Donald Trump, reported Trump's comments to CNN at the time: “Why should I go to this cemetery? It's full of losers. » (“Why should I go in this cemetery? It’s filled with losers”). The American magazine The Atlantic revealed it in September 2020, Trump denied it, John Kelly then confirmed it.
At CNN, John Kelly described the former president as “a person who didn't want to be seen around military amputees because 'it's not good for [s]we image”, a person saying that our greatest heroes who gave their lives in the defense of America are losers and that he would not visit their graves in France”. According to The Atlantic article, Donald Trump also called the Marines killed at Bois Belleau “idiots”.
Let us also remember that during a visit to the United States, Emmanuel Macron offered Donald Trump a cutting from the Belleau forest. The tree could not withstand the quarantine imposed by the United States.
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