Trumps hosting Macrons for pleasure before business
WASHINGTON — Tending to bonding before business, President Donald Trump and France’s Emmanuel Macron were starting off the French president’s visit Monday with an anything-but-ordinary double date with their wives at George Washington’s house.
The presidents and their spouses were to helicopter together to Mount Vernon, Washington’s historic riverside home, for a private dinner one night before the two leaders sit down for talks on a weighty agenda including security, trade and the Iran nuclear deal.
Macron’s pomp-filled three-day state visit to Washington underscores the importance that both sides attach to the relationship: Macron, who calls Trump often, has emerged as something of a “Trump whisperer” at a time when the American president’s relationships with other European leaders are more strained. Trump, who attaches great importance to pageantry and ceremony, chose to honor Macron with the first state visit of his administration as he woos the French president.
“This is a great honor and I think a very important state visit given the moment of our current environment,” Macron said after his plane landed at a U.S. military base near Washington.
For all their camaraderie, Macron and Trump disagree on some fundamental issues, including the multinational nuclear deal, which is aimed at restricting Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. Trump, skeptical of the pact’s effectiveness, has been eager to pull out as a May 12 deadline nears. Macron says he is not satisfied with the situation in Iran and thinks the agreement is imperfect, but he has argued for the U.S. sticking with the deal on the grounds that there is not yet a “Plan B.”
The Trumps and Macrons planned to plant a tree on the White House grounds together before boarding Trump’s Marine One helicopter for a scenic tour of monuments built in the capital city designed by French-born Pierre L’Enfant as they fly south to Mount Vernon, the first U.S. president’s home along the Potomac River.
The young oak bears historical significance. It sprouted at a World War I site in France, the Battle of Belleau Wood, that became part of U.S. Marine Corps lore.
Trump ended his first year in office without receiving a foreign leader on a state visit, the first president in nearly 100 years to fail to do so. He was Macron’s guest last July at the annual Bastille Day military parade in the center of Paris. Macron and his wife also took Trump and America’s first lady on a tour of Napoleon’s tomb and whisked them up in the Eiffel Tower for dinner overlooking the City of Light.
Macron will be welcomed back to the White House today with a traditional arrival ceremony featuring nearly 500 members of the U.S. military and a 21-gun salute.