One hundred years ago today, on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh month, the warring parties of what had become up to that point humanity’s deadliest conflagration decided to put an end to what we call World War I.
The occasion is one to be remembered, but not “celebrated” as Trump put it. Trump was invited to the ceremonies to commemorate the event because the United States lost 100,000 men in the conflict. As every head of state paid their respects to the fallen over the weekend, Trump decided that the weather was too rainy on Saturday for him to get out and visit the Aisne-Marne American cemetery in Bellau. The cemetery is about a 40 minute drive from downtown Paris.
Yesterday, there were no cancellations at either of the Paris airports due to bad weather.
The official White House statement was that it was not safe to fly Marine One in the rain.
Marine One is the call sign given to the helicopter in which the President of the United States is flying at any given point in time. Currently, there are two helicopter models, the VH-3D (Sea King) and the VH-60N used for this. The Sea King is an all-weather helicopter used by the Navy. The VH-60N is similarly an all-weather helicopter.
Instead of making the drive to the cemetery, as Marine General (ret.) John Kelly did, under non-rainy conditions, Trump decided to lecture the leaders of Baltic nations about the history of Balkan nations. He also sat in his room for four hours.
According to the White House, it is the Secret Service that decides whether it is safe to fly the helicopters. With this White House, however, the most likely scenario is that Trump told his minions that he wasn’t up to getting soaked in the rain. He said as much on Sunday, while giving a speech at the Suresnes American cemetery.
It is in moments like these, when Trump goes off script, that are the most revealing about his thinking and his motives. The pathological liar, unable to control his impulses, bursts out saying that he does not appreciate being in the rain to commemorate American deaths on foreign soil. This is the same man that claims to be all-in for the military. There is likely zero chance that hard-core Trump believers will think any less of him, but it is contingent upon the rest of us to remember that Trump is not worthy of the office.