President Biden leaves for France on Tuesday evening and will spend the rest of the week attempting to draw a sharp contrast with his 2024 political opponent, former President Trump, in terms of values and international leadership.
Biden will join other world leaders in commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings and deliver a speech focusing on democracy and freedom, two key pillars of his re-election bid.
At the end of his visit, the president will stop at the cemetery where Trump was unable to visit in 2018 due to weather, and where he called those buried there “losers” and “idiots,” a remark Biden has reportedly repeatedly quoted to attack his predecessor.
Already reeling from a New York jury’s conviction of Biden on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scam, the visit will give Biden a platform to sharply differentiate himself from Trump.
“President Biden has made revitalizing our relationship a top priority, recognizing that we are stronger together and that today’s challenges require global solutions and a global response,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said.
In recent months, Biden has frequently brought up allegations by former Trump aides that Trump, during a visit to France in 2018, insulted veterans who had been wounded or killed in combat, calling them “idiots.”
Biden criticized Trump for those comments at a fundraiser on Monday.
“He’s a loser and a fool! Who does he think he is?” Biden yelled in front of the donors.
Asked about upcoming visits to the same cemeteries that Trump did not visit, Kirby said Biden “looks forward to paying his respects” to those veterans.
“The message is simple: We must never forget the service and sacrifice of our American troops in wars overseas, in World War I and, of course, in World War II,” Kirby said. “And that’s the message the president is trying to get across with this visit: that, of course, the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in those two wars did not sacrifice their futures in vain, and we must take every opportunity to recognize that.”
Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech marking the 80th anniversary at Normandy on June 6.Number On the anniversary of the Normandy landings, he will meet with American veterans and those from other allied nations who took part in the massive invasion that helped turn the tide of World War II.
He is also scheduled to speak in Pointe-du-Hoc, France, on June 7.
Biden’s symbolic marking of the Allied victory over European dictators in World War II will be an implicit rebuke to Trump, who has repeatedly claimed “will be a dictator from day one” and has come under fire for using rhetoric reminiscent of dictators.
Marking Memorial Day last month, Biden’s reelection campaign said in a statement: “The American Dream, won and sacrificed by so many, is under threat from Donald Trump. Trump calls those who made the ultimate sacrifice ‘idiots’ and ‘losers,’ dreams of becoming a dictator over a ‘united empire,’ and would destroy the very idea of America in order to seize power for himself.”
Biden is also scheduled to travel to Paris on June 8 for an official state visit with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“This visit will underscore continuing U.S. and French leadership on a range of important issues,” Kirby said, noting that Biden and Macron will discuss Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific region, the Israel-Hamas war and climate change.
Kirby said he expected the two leaders to deepen transatlantic ties and Indo-Pacific cooperation, work to increase investment in clean energy and emphasize U.S.-French cooperation on security ahead of this summer’s Paris Olympics.
Other leaders, including King Charles III, are expected to visit France around the same time, giving Biden an opportunity to consult with other key allies and appear alongside other leaders during an election year.
Later in June, Biden will have a new opportunity on the world stage when he travels to Italy for the Group of Seven summit.
Biden has marked a departure from Trump’s isolationist “America First” policies and a return to global alliances and partnerships, and the White House said his international engagements this week will highlight those efforts three years into his presidency and as he faces a tough re-election fight.
“When he talks about American leadership, it’s not arrogant leadership. It’s humble leadership,” Kirby said. “He recognizes that no matter how powerful we are and how much good we can do, we need help. Our allies and partners give us things that we can’t always provide. And … when we work with one another, we send a stronger message about those lofty words: peace, freedom, stability and security.”
As he campaigns across the country this year, Biden has frequently brought up conversations with other world leaders to differentiate his administration from Trump’s “America First” policies.
And he’s using those conversations to underscore what he thinks is the importance of this election.
“I’ve never been to a major international conference that a world leader didn’t call me in before the conference was over and say, ‘He can’t beat him. We can’t let him win,’ and I’ve been to more conferences in my three and a half years than most presidents,” Biden said in an interview with Time magazine published Tuesday.
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