PARIS (AP) — President Joe Biden will mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of France this week as he seeks to show steadfast support for European security at a time when some allies fear Republican Donald Trump risks undermining U.S. commitments if he takes another wins a term in the White House.
The trip comes as the continent’s deadliest fighting since World War II continues in Ukraine and allied countries struggle to find ways to turn the tide against Russia, which has recently gained ground on the battlefield. It also counters the growing rift between the US and many European allies over how to manage the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Biden arrives in Paris on Wednesday morning. On Thursday he will visit hallowed ground near the beaches of Normandy, where rows of bone-white headstones mark the graves of American soldiers who died to end World War II. He will also speak Friday at Pointe du Hoc, a site on the French coast where Army Rangers climb coastal cliffs to overcome Nazi defenses.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking aboard Air Force One en route to France, said Biden will highlight how the men on those cliffs “put the country ahead” and detail “the dangers of isolationism.” describe, and how, when we support dictators. If they fail to resist them, they continue and America and the world ultimately pay a higher price.”
“Eighty years later, we see dictators once again trying to challenge the order, trying to march across Europe,” Sullivan said, “and freedom-loving nations must unite to resist it, as we have.”
He also said Biden would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in France to discuss “how we can continue and deepen our support for Ukraine.”
On Saturday, Biden, along with his wife Jill, will be honored by French President Emmanuel Macron with a state visit, including a military parade in Paris and a banquet at the Élysée Palace, as well as business sessions where the leaders will discuss strengthening their position . their alliance, trade and security cooperation for the upcoming Olympic Games.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss the Middle East. Biden has invested geopolitical capital in brokering a temporary ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas that would result in the release of hostages, even as he has maintained his staunch support for Israel and opposed European attempts to recognize a Palestinian state or investigate Israel over its dealings with Israel. the war.
Biden is scheduled to return to the United States on Sunday, but before leaving France he is expected to stop at a cemetery where American soldiers killed in World War I are buried. Trump skipped plans to visit the same spot during a 2018 trip to France, a decision the White House at the time blamed on the weather.
However, later reporting showed that Trump told aides he did not want to go because he viewed the dead soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.” He has denied the comments Biden referenced Monday at a fundraiser in Greenwich, Conn.
“This man does not deserve to be president,” Biden said.
Although foreign travel is ostensibly nonpartisan, Biden left no doubt that he sees a political connection between the D-Day anniversary and the election. The president described the invasion as “one of the most important moments in the history of the defense of freedom and democracy.”
“I want to say it as clearly as possible,” he added. “Democracy is literally on the ballot this year.”
Biden’s trip to France will be followed later this month by a trip to Italy for the annual Group of Seven summit, a rare doubleheader of international diplomacy in the middle of presidential election season. Biden will skip another meeting in Switzerland, where leaders will focus on the war in Ukraine, to attend a campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles with Hollywood stars. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the United States instead.
Biden’s trips, plus the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington next month, are intended to embody a vision of global American leadership that is central to his political identity but faces a renewed threat from Trump.
Although the two presidents are from the same generation — Biden, 81, was born a year and a half before D-Day; Trump, 77, was born two years after the invasion – they developed differing views on Europe and US alliances over the years.
For Biden, U.S. ties with Europe are a cornerstone of stability and a source of strength. For Trump, they are a drain on precious resources, and he has expressed greater affinity with autocratic leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine has rocked the continent.
Even before voters decide which vision they prefer, cracks have already opened in the foundation of Biden’s foreign policy. It took months to secure additional military aid to Ukraine due to Republican Party resistance, and the delay led to depleted ammunition reserves and Russian advances on the battlefield.
“That all happened with a die-hard Atlanticist and die-hard alliance supporter in the White House,” said Charles Kupchan, a professor at Georgetown University and previously Europe director on President Barack Obama’s National Security Council. “Europeans have no choice but to ask how reliable the United States can be.”
Kupchan noted that “the bipartisan compact behind stable and robust American internationalism has collapsed.”
Given the political complications at home, Kupchan said, Biden should be careful about drawing historical parallels between D-Day and Ukraine while in France.
“I’m not sure he wants to say this is a moment like 1940 or 1941,” he said, especially since Biden has ruled out sending U.S. troops to fight the Russian invasion.
Like all his international engagements, Biden’s trip will be overshadowed by Trump’s possible return to the White House. The presumptive Republican nominee, who last week became the first US president to be convicted of a crime, has vowed to unravel America’s obligations to allies in Europe.
“It’s every conversation. Every conversation is: what will happen? says Max Bergmann, who leads European research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Bergmann, who was in the middle of a trip around the continent in the days before Biden arrived, said some European officials hope a second Trump term would be no more damaging than his first if he fails to implement some of his more extreme ideas. But he doubts Trump will be contained without moderate members of his administration — such as former Defense Secretary James Mattis — who are unlikely to return.
“I’m not reassuring them,” Bergmann said.
Rachel Rizzo, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said there is a “palpable sense of uncertainty” as the United States and Europe grapple with populist movements that have proven sustainably popular.
“This is not an aberration, this is not an accident,” she said. “There are real grievances that citizens of both continents have, and these are expressed in support of right-wing parties.”
Another complication for Biden is that his trip comes at the same time his son, Hunter, is on trial in Delaware. The younger Biden is accused of lying when purchasing a gun by claiming he was not a drug addict. He has pleaded not guilty.
The prosecutor began presenting his case on Tuesday, just days after Trump became the first US president to be convicted of a crime. Trump was found guilty in New York of illegally paying hush money to an adult film actress who said she had sex. Trump denies the affair.
Paul Begala, a longtime Democratic strategist, said Biden would probably be better off ignoring Trump while he is in France.
“When you’re 81 years old and three-quarters of the country thinks you’re too old, one of the things you have to do is show strength,” he said. ‘That’s what he has to do there. He must show strength.”
___ Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbett in Paris and Fatima Hussein in Greenwich, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
