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Donald Trump has wasted no time taking a poke at his French host as he arrived in Paris for events marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War, tweeting as he landed that President Emmanuel Macron had made an “insulting” proposal to build up Europe's military to counter the US, China and Russia.
It was a clear sign that the “America First” president was ready to chart his own course yet again as world leaders gathered to remember the coalition that brought an end to the first global war. Trump's visit comes on the heels of midterm elections in which Americans delivered a split referendum on his presidency, keeping the Senate in his party's control but ceding the House to opposition Democrats.
He planned to meet with Macron on Saturday for talks on topics expected to include European security, Syria and Iran. As he arrived, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Macron “has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia. Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!”
Mr Trump's brief visit to Europe comes amid uncertainty about the US relationship with the continent. Mr Trump has railed against trade deals with the European Union and has criticised some EU nations, including France, for not spending enough to defense to sustain Nato, the decades-old Western alliance formed as a bulwark to Moscow's aggression.
Mr Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, said in Paris that the US was concerned about stability in Europe and that Mr Trump was not shirking from global engagement. “I think the enduring lesson (of World War I) for the United States is that when you become a global power ... you have global interests to protect,” Mr Bolton said. “Great world leaders,” he said, are “driven by national interests.”
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For Sunday's armistice anniversary, Mr Trump was to join world leaders at a ceremony in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe.
“It should be a very beautiful period of time, the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I. We have many countries — the leadership from many countries will be there, especially since they heard the United States will be there. And we look forward to that,” Mr Trump said
Mr Trump originally wanted to celebrate Veterans Day on Sunday with a grand military parade in Washington, as he was inspired by the tanks and flyovers he saw during France's Bastille Day celebration when he visited Paris in July of last year. Mr Trump ordered the Pentagon to come up with plans for his own version, but they were eventually scrapped over concerns about costs and the damage tanks weighing many tons would do to the streets in Washington.
To follow how the day unfolded see our live coverage below
While the president appeared to be in a combative mood he carried over from a press gaggle in front of the White House, National Security Adviser John Bolton took a very different tone ahead of his arrival in Paris.
Mr Trump is reportedly not scheduling any meetings with the other world leaders in attendance, including Mr Putin. But, he did not rule out the two would interact at a scheduled Elysee Palace dinner.
The president and other leaders may discuss something however since the next G20 meeting is later this month in Argentina.
During his visit, the president is expected to visit two First World War sites in addition to participating in ceremonies: the Belleau Wood battlefield,where there is an adjacent American cemetery and the Suresnes American Cemetery on the outskirts of Paris.
Belleau Wood was where 1,800 American soldiers died as German positions were attacked. There was weeks of hand-to-hand combat until the Americans were able to take Belleau Wood on June 26, 1918.
“It should be a very beautiful period of time — the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I,” Mr Trump said shortly before he departed Washington, DC.
“The leadership of many countries will be there, especially since they heard the United States will be there. And we look forward to that.”
The "war to end all wars" ended after four years and 20 million deaths. The US lost more than 100,000 military personnel. France experienced some of the greatest loss of life, at least 1.3 million military deaths.
The trip, if nothing else, will be a test for the strained relationship between Mr Macron and Mr Trump.
Europe largely thought of the French leader as a sort of "Trump whisperer" at one point given how their tense relationship began to become more friendly. However, Mr Macron was unable to convince Mr Trump to keep the us in either the Paris climate agreement or the Iran nuclear deal, displeasing his own voters as well.
Mr Macron, who has been touring battlefields in north and east France all week, told France's Europe 1 radio station ahead of Mr Trump's arrival:
“We need to protect ourselves from China, from Russia and even the United States. When I see President Trump announcing a pullout from a big disarmament treaty that was taken in the middle of the 1980s in the middle of the missile crisis which had affected Europe, who is going to be the main victim? Europe and its security,”
Here is an image of the Trumps arriving in Paris and some statistics about Mr Trump's foreign trips and comparisons to his predecessors Barack Obama and George W Bush.
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