Scandal follows Trump to Paris

FRENCH, US FORCES SIDE-BY-SIDE IN SYRIA Macron wants a relationship with Trump enabling him to influence US policy.

Donald Trump arrived in Paris yesterday for a presidential visit filled with Bastille Day pomp and which the White House hopes will offer respite from the rolling scandal back home.

The US president’s 24-hour trip coincides with France’s national day today and the 100th anniversary of US involvement in World War I. Trump is hoping the visit will distract from weighty allegations that his family and inner circle colluded with Russia to win the 2016 US election. The scandal has put his son and top aides in legal jeopardy and cast a pall over his efforts to remake US politics.

He will be the guest of honour at festivities marking a pivotal point in the French Revolution, after a trip to Napoleon’s tomb. He and French President Emmanuel Macron will watch troops on parade and mark 100 years since America entered World War I on France’s side.

Macron, 39, is hoping to use the weight of history and French grandeur to charm Trump – six weeks after welcoming Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the grandiose Palace of Versailles.

In London, Berlin, Brussels and Paris, European leaders are wondering how best to handle the US president, whose nationalist “America First” agenda has upended transatlantic relations. Macron hopes to build a relationship with Trump that might enable him to influence US policy or at least help avoid serious strains between the European Union (EU) and Washington.

There are already tensions over climate change and trade, while Trump was critical of the EU last year and snubbed a handshake with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at their first meeting in March.

Talks between the two are expected to focus on joint efforts to combat the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where American and French troops are in action side-by-side. Macron told regional newspaper Ouest-France yesterday that Paris and Washington had “an essential point of convergence: fighting terrorism and protecting our vital interests”.

Otherwise their views appear to be at odds. Macron has criticised Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the global Paris climate change agreement and lamented “a protectionist tendency (which) has resurfaced in the US”, saying “I want to defend free and fair trade”. – AFP