FRENCH DISS
Macron takes shot at Trump during WWI anniversary
One day after taking heat for skipping a cemetery tribute to American GIs killed during World War I, President Trump was scorched by French leader Emmanuel Macron. As Trump, a self-described “nationalist,” sat feet away at a ceremony in Paris marking the 100 th anniversary of the armistice, Macron declared, “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism.”
French President Emmanuel Macron marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on Sunday with a rebuke of a rising tide of nationalism — in a solemn but pointed speech delivered as a stone-faced President Trump sat listening feet away with other world leaders.
Standing at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Macron warned that the “old demons” that killed 10 million soldiers during the war were “rising again” and could shatter the peace “that we believed we had definitively settled with our ancestors’ blood.”
He also appeared to aim remarks directly at Trump, who has aggressively pursued an “America First” stance in trade and foreign policy and last month declared himself a proud “nationalist.”
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” Macron said.
“In saying, ‘Our interests first, whatever happens to the others,’ you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: its moral values.”
Scores of world leaders marched side by side on the Champs-Elysees to the ceremony, which had been timed to start as church bells tolled at 11 a.m. to mark the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,” when the 1918 armistice to end the war went into effect.
But the procession started late and the officials were still walking in the rain, under a sea of black umbrellas, when the bells finished ringing and a formation of military jets flew overhead, trailing smoke in the blue, white and red colors of the French flag.
Trump didn’t join the group, in- stead traveling with First Lady Melania Trump in a motorcade.
Asked about the seemingly isolationist symbolism of coming alone, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited security protocols.
At one point, a topless female protester with the words “FAKE PEACE MAKER” scrawled across her torso rushed toward the motorcade before getting grabbed and hauled off by cops.
The other notable absence from the march of world leaders was Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also came alone and was the last to arrive, greeting Trump with a handshake and thumbs-up.
In addition to Macron’s 20-minute address, the ceremony featured eight high-school students in yellow scarves who read aloud letters written by soldiers and civilians on the day the guns went silent.
They included one by German soldier Erich Maria Remarque, author of the World War I novel “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
There were also performances by singer Angelique Kidjo and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The service concluded with the bugle call that signaled the end of the war that introduced the horrors of chemical weapons, aerial bombardment and trench warfare.
Macron later hosted a luncheon for visiting leaders at the presidential Elysee Palace, while officials’ spouses traveled to the Palace of Versailles outside Paris for a luncheon with French First Lady Brigitte Macron and a pri- vate concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Putin told Russian reporters that he spoke with Trump at the leaders’ luncheon, with Macron present and German Chancellor Angela Merkel joining in some exchanges.
But Putin said he and Trump had agreed not to overshadow the events by meeting privately and would instead sit down on the sidelines at the two-day Group of 20 meeting that starts Nov. 30 in Buenos Aires.
Afterward, Trump tweeted his thanks to Macron for the “beautiful ceremony” and headed off to commemorate America’s war dead at a cemetery outside Paris.
Meanwhile, Macron kicked off a three-day forum on world peace, where Merkel also took a thinly veiled swipe at Trump.
While denouncing “national vaingloriousness and military arrogance,” Merkel warned that the “senseless bloodshed” of World War I “made clear what disastrous consequences a lack of communication and unwillingness to compromise can have.”
Across Paris, about 1,500 anti-Trump protesters gathered at Republique square, where the Baby Trump balloon was flown and a banner read, “Mr. Hate, Leave Europe.”