President Joe Biden concluded his five-day state visit to France on Sunday by touring an American cemetery home to 2,200 US soldiers who fought and died in World War I.
The president, who has used the visit to praise US alliances in Europe and reiterate support Ukraine in its war for Russia, laid a wreath at the chapel of Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, France, outside of Paris.
“These soldiers were heroes, just as every American who has served this nation,” Biden said during the visit, adding, “The best way to avoid these kinds of battles in the future is to stay strong with our allies.”
Many observers saw the visit as a rebuke to Donald Trump, who skipped a planned 2018 visit to the cemetery and reportedly called the servicemen buried there “suckers” and “losers.”
Trump reportedly snubbed a planned commemoration at the cemetery for the 100th anniversary of WWI, fearing his hair would become disheveled in the rain, The Atlantic reported in 2020.
“At the time, he reportedly told those on the trip with him, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
Trump denied making the comments about the French cemetery.
John Kelly, a former Marine Corps general and Trump chief of staff, later told CNN Trump indeed mocked the dead American soldiers there.
The alleged remarks echoed Trump’s past controversial remarks about Sen John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam who endured years of torture, about whom Trump said, “I like people who weren’t captured.”
The Biden campaign, facing an extremely tight race against Trump in November, has sought to emphasize Trump’s comments about the military.
A recent campaign ad cuts footage of dead American servicemembers returning home in coffins with Trump’s past remarks about soldiers.
Elsewhere during the state visit, Biden commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in Nazi-occupied France.
“They knew ... beyond any doubt that there are things that are worth fighting and dying for: Freedom is worth it,” Biden said of the soldiers. “Democracy is worth it. America’s worth it, the world is worth it, then, now and always.”
He also said the success of D-Day proved “the unbreakable unity of allies.”
