Trump returns from Paris to face growing problems
WASHINGTON—He’ll always have Paris.
President Donald Trump returned Friday from being feted in France to confront new, damaging revelations in the investigation into whether his associates coordinated with Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election, as well as perilous signs in Congress for the Republican health care bill that represents one of his major campaign pledges.
Friday morning, minutes before being welcomed as the guest of honor for the elaborate Bastille Day military parade on the ChampsElysees, the grand boulevard of Paris, Mr. Trump was stewing over his party’s inability to get a health care bill to his desk.
As his motorcade was waiting, he let loose a string of Twitter messages admonishing Senate Republicans, despite the fact that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has told administration officials that such social media messages are not helpful.
“After all of these years of suffering thru ObamaCare, Republican Senators must come through as they have promised!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.
Thousands of miles from troubles in Washington, Mr. Trumpseemed buoyed by his trip to France. He talked animatedly with French President Emmanuel Macron while watching French and American troops, armored personnel carriers, tanks, missile launchers and other military equipment parade for more than two hours from the Arc de Triomphe downthe grand avenue.
Dozens of military planes and helicopters thundered over the heads of the two presidents, with one formation of fighter jets painting the sky with streaks of red, white and blue smoke signifying the tricolorsof both nations.
Thenewly elected Mr. Macron had invited Mr. Trump on short notice for France’s national day celebrations and to mark the 100th anniversary of American troops’ arrival in France to help fight German forces in World War I.
Bands played traditional French marching music. At one point a marching band spelled out the word “NICE” in front of the VIP reviewing stand, in memory of 86 people killed a year earlier by an Islamic extremist driving a cargo truck into a Bastille Day celebration in that French city.
“The presence today of the U.S.President Donald Trump and his wife is the sign of a friendship that lasts through time,” Mr. Macron said at the conclusionof the parade.
France has found “sure allies, friends who came to help us,” he said. “The United States of America are among them. That is why nothing willseparate us, never.”
Mr. Macron seemed eager to woo Mr. Trump personally, and substantively. He focused their meetings Thursday on issues the two administrations can cooperate on, including counterterrorism and Syria.
Mr. Macron did not bring up contentious issues such as Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, Mr. Trump’s homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, told reporters flying with the president back to the U.S.
Climate issues “didn’t chill or infect or in any way come up verbally or through nonverbal cues in our conversations,” Mr. Bossert said.