President-elect Donald Trump is in Europe this weekend for his first international tour since his landslide victory in last month’s presidential election.
Trump will meet with Emmanuel Macron, who invited him to Saturday’s star-studded VIP gala for the official reopening of the beautifully repaired Notre Dame Cathedral, five years after a horrific fire destroyed the centuries-old Paris icon.
Jill Biden, the First Lady, will also attend the ceremony, but Trump will be the one holding court with world leaders.
The president-elect’s appearance will mark his unofficial return to the global stage, and it serves as just another reminder that he is swiftly becoming the focus of the world’s attention.
“This is without a doubt a watershed moment in French history, and the fact that Macron wanted to share it with Trump demonstrates the importance of what Trump is accomplishing even before he returns to the Oval Office,” said Brett Bruen, a public affairs and strategic communications veteran and former US diplomat who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
“He is being feted quite literally in Paris, with all the glitz and glamour,” said Bruen, president of the Global Situation Room.
And Bruen and other observers praise Macron for inviting Trump to this weekend’s festivities.
“This is a really smart move by Macron to get things rolling in the right direction when it comes to U.S.-French relations under Trump,” he told reporters. “But let’s also remember the fact that Macron is both badly weakened in his own country and on the European continent…”[Macron] may see Trump as an opportunity to reclaim his status as the European leader best suited to interact with the next American president.”
In the weeks following the November election, Trump has received numerous calls from overseas leaders congratulating him on his White House victory.
The trip to Paris comes a week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unexpected stop at Mar-a-Lago to dine with Trump following the president-elect’s threat of a trade war with Canada and Mexico.
Trump claimed that Canada had failed to prevent enormous quantities of drugs and unauthorized immigrants from crossing the northern border into the United States, and he also cited America’s massive trade deficit with Canada.
According to AWN’s Bret Baier, Trump mentioned to Trudeau that Canada could become the 51st state.
Trump has also spoken out recently on a number of overseas situations. In the tumultuous Middle East, the president-elect warned this week in a social media post that there would be “ALL HELL TO PAY” if Hamas did not release all hostages in Gaza before his inauguration on January 20.
News of Trump’s invitation to Paris broke earlier this week while President Biden was on a historic trip to Angola, where he became the first American president to visit the Sub-Saharan African country.
However, Biden, who is likely on his final overseas trip before Trump assumes the presidency next month, is already being overshadowed on the global stage by his predecessor and successor.
“While President-elect [Trump] is still weeks away from taking the oath of office, world leaders’ loyalties and attention have shifted from Washington to Mar-a-lago with breathtaking speed,” Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and president of New England College, told AWN.
Matt Mowers, a seasoned GOP national public relations consultant and former ambassador at the State Department during Trump’s first term, argued that “Biden’s essentially been a lame duck” for months, with “world leaders shifting their gaze to the next administration.”
While members of the Biden White House would likely disagree with such sentiments, especially after the current administration played a significant role in negotiating the cease-fire that ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, it is undeniable that world leaders have already begun to engage directly with the incoming president and administration.
While the attention always swings from the departing to the incoming president, Mowers argued that “it is more pronounced this time because the difference in Biden and Trump’s approach to foreign policy is so different.”
Mowers highlighted that Trump is already seeking “to shape world events” by “being bold, not timid, in the statements he’s putting out, and the world is already reacting to that kind of American strength.”
“World leaders that want to get something done… have to engage with Trump,” he told reporters.
Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who worked at the State Department during Trump’s first term, told AWN that “the world is demanding leadership” and “the Oval Office has been replaced by Mar-a-Lago.”
Lesperance, citing Biden’s trip to Africa, observed that lame duck presidents’ final weeks are “typically filled with celebratory moments and efforts to cement one’s legacy.” Frequently, the emphasis is on their work on the international scene on behalf of America and her allies.
However, he claimed that “Biden’s pronouncements on Ukraine, Gaza, and the importance of climate change are largely ignored by world leaders.” Instead, they concentrate on Trump’s foreign policy team appointments and statements concerning changes in the US foreign policy posture. While Biden conducts a victory tour, it’s clear that the world has moved on.”
