Parisians turn up their noses to Trump visit
Many just baffled by Macron’s invitation of U.S. president
Parisians are greeting President Trump’s visit Thursday for Bastille Day celebrations in the way the French do best: total disdain.
“Pfff — he should just go to Pittsburgh,” student Marie Billoteau, 24, said, harking to Trump’s explanation June 1 for withdrawing from the Paris climate change agreement: “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
Many expressed bewilderment that their new president, Emmanuel Macron, invited an American president who had supported Macron’s right-wing opponent and disagrees with the French government on a range of international issues.
Others just shrugged and said Trump will enjoy his first visit here as president to be feted as the guest of honor.
Thursday, Macron will host dinner at the Jules Verne restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower with creations by one of France’s most celebrated chefs, Alain Ducasse. Friday, Trump will watch the annual Bastille Day parade down the ChampsElysées with all its pomp and circumstance.
Billoteau said she just hopes Trump behaves: “He doesn’t seem to know what is correct sometime.”
A poll in May by Suffolk University found 82% of the French have an unfavorable view of Trump — even more negative than Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Still, the invitation was a brilliant move by Macron, said Eddy Fougier, a political scientist at the French Institute of International and Strategic Affairs in Paris. “Since Donald Trump declared a while ago that Paris wasn’t Paris anymore, Macron probably wants to show him that Paris is still Paris,” he said of the visit that includes honoring the 100th anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War I.
Trump said in a 2015 TV interview about the wave of migrants entering Europe, “I was in Paris, and Paris doesn’t look like Paris anymore.”
“It’s a pragmatic approach for Macron, and the fact that the U.S. president and troops will be in Paris will raise the profile of France in the world on the day,” Fougier added.
Former presidential contender Jean-Luc Mélenchon of far-left party La France Insoumise said he “deplores” that Trump will be on French soil when the country marks its version of July Fourth — the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution.
Demonstrations are expected to occur at Place de la Republique and at least two other districts in central Paris during his visit.
“Trump is not welcome in Paris,” organizers of Paris Against Trump wrote on their Facebook page. “We oppose his positions ... his sexist speeches and behavior, his Islamophobia and racist remarks.”