Replies to post #293497 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[PegnVA]

It puzzles me why ANY U.S. veteran would support this poor excuse for a man, let alone president...

Particularly strong reaction came from Nicholas Soames, UK Conservative MP and grandson of British wartime leader Winston Churchill
Nicholas Soames
Verified account @NSoames

They died with their face to the foe and that
pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump
couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his
respects to The Fallen
#hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry
6:51 AM - 10 Nov 2018

They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen #hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry

— Nicholas Soames (@NSoames) November 10, 2018

[BOREALIS]

Critics pile on after Trump cancels visit to U.S. military cemetery outside Paris, citing weather

By David Nakamura, Seung Min Kim and James McAuley
November 10 at 3:59 PM

PARIS — President Trump flew 3,800 miles to this French capital city for ceremonies to honor the military sacrifice in World War I, hoping to take part in the kind of powerful ode to the bravery of the armed forces that he was unable to hold in Washington.

But on his first full day here, it rained on his substitute parade weekend.

Early Saturday, the White House announced Trump and the first lady had scuttled plans, due to bad weather, for their first stop in the weekend’s remembrance activities — a visit to the solemn Aisne Marne American Cemetery, marking the ferocious Battle of Belleau Wood.

[The Battle of Belleau Wood was brutal, deadly and forgotten. But it forged a new Marine Corps.]

It was not completely clear why the Trumps were unable to attend. The cemetery is 50 miles from Paris. Perhaps the president was planning to travel on Marine One, which is occasionally grounded by the Secret Service.

But the sight of dignitaries arriving at other sites outside Paris, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, led some foreign policy analysts to speculate the U.S. commander in chief just wasn’t up for it.

“It’s incredible that a president would travel to France for this significant anniversary — and then remain in his hotel room watching TV rather than pay in person his respects to the Americans who gave their lives in France for the victory gained 100 years ago tomorrow,” David Frum, who served as a speechwriter to President George W. Bush, wrote in tweets. Trump is actually staying at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Paris.

So began a weekend in which Trump — battling on a number of political fronts in Washington — seemed distracted and disengaged. Trump left Washington as the list of White House worries piled up: newly empowered Democrats, criticism of his pick for acting attorney general and backlash over his personal attacks against journalists.

Trump was in France in body but appeared unenthusiastic in spirit.

The White House said Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, would attend the Belleau ceremony in the Trumps’ absence, but Frum suggested Trump could have tried to scramble a motorcade to keep his schedule.

Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser under President Barack Obama, noted he helped plan Obama’s foreign travel throughout his two terms and said it was common to have a backup plan to deal with inclement weather.

Video (scrowl down)
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe Nov. 11 to mark the moment guns fell silent across Europe at the end of World War I. (Reuters)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/trump-and-macron-meet-whats-left-to-talk-about/2018/11/10/680a014c-e1ec-11e8-ba30-a7ded04d8fac_story.html?utm_term=.abf882e76445

“There is always a rain option. Always,” he wrote in a tweet. “Trump will use the U.S. military for a pre election political stunt but sits in his hotel instead of honoring those who fought and died for America.”

The cemetery has 2,288 grave­sites honoring those who died, including many Americans. The names of 1,060 more Americans who went missing and whose bodies were not recovered are engraved on the walls of the site.

[...]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/trump-and-macron-meet-whats-left-to-talk-about/2018/11/10/680a014c-e1ec-11e8-ba30-a7ded04d8fac_story.html?utm_term=.03b8753160e9