Donald Trump today changed his excuse for snubbing a World War I commemorative ceremony from “bad weather” to “not wanting to disrupt traffic”.
The US President had been expected to pay tribute to more than 1,000 Marines killed in the 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood, some 50 miles north east of Paris.
But a less than an hour before Saturday’s ceremony at the Aisne-Marine American cemetery was due to start, he pulled out, opting instead to stay at his Ambassador’s Residence in the French capital.
The excuse was said to be “bad weather”, which allegedly prevented the presidential helicopter, Marine 1, travelling to Belleau.
This excuse was widely criticised, with Conservative MP Nicholas Soames, who is Winston Churchill’s grandson, writing on Twitter: “They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate Donald Trump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to the Fallen.”
Following the attacks, Mr Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, issued a fresh excuse, saying the use of the presidential Cadillac to get to Belleau would have disrupted traffic around Paris.
“President Trump did not want to cause that kind of unexpected disruption to the city and its people,” she said.
Mrs Huckabee Sanders also claimed that the journey from Paris to Belleau was “two-and-a-half hours each way by car” – a claim that has also caused widespread astonishment.
In the end, the ceremony at Belleau was attended by the White House chief of staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joe Dunford.
Yesterday Mr Trump did make it to Suresnes, another cemetery close to Paris, where he paid tribute to America’s war dead.
It came as a series of events were yesterday held across the UK to mark the centenary, including a “people’s procession” through central London to the Cenotaph.
