WWI event puts Trump on defensive
PARIS — President Trump’s brand of “America First” nationalism was repudiated Sunday as leaders from around the globe gathered to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I and reaffirm the international bonds that have once again come under strain.
Stone-faced and unmoved, the U.S. leader listened as President Emmanuel Macron of France used the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe to denounce self-interested nationalism and extol the sort of globalism and international institutions that Trump has spent the last two years pulling the United States away from.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,” Macron said. “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism by saying, ‘Our interest first, who cares about the others?’ ”
Remembering the forces that led to World War I, Macron warned that “the old demons” have been resurfacing and declared that “giving into the fascination for withdrawal, isolationism, violence and domination would be a grave error that future generations would very rightly make us responsible for.”
Trump, who recently declared himself “a nationalist,” appeared grim as he listened to a translation of the speech through an earpiece and clapped only tepidly afterward. He had no speaking role at the ceremony and made no mention of the issues Macron raised during an address later in the day at a cemetery for U.S. soldiers killed in the war.
The anniversary ceremony encapsulated the tension in the international arena as Trump seeks to rewrite the rules that have governed the world in recent decades. Trump has argued other nations have taken advantage of the United States, whether in economics or security, and that it was time to look after American interests first.
He has abandoned a number of international agreements on trade, nuclear proliferation and climate change, and disparaged alliances like NATO and the European Union. He has denounced virtually every trade pact that the United States has ever agreed to and recently forced Canada and Mexico to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement in a way that he says will benefit the United States more.
At the Arc de Triomphe, bells tolled exactly one century after the guns fell silent at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.