Biden visits a military cemetery in France that Trump once snubbed

PARIS — There is trolling. And then there is presidential trolling.

President Joe Biden on Sunday wrapped up a five-day visit to France by making a point to visit a cemetery for American soldiers killed in World War I. That, of course, is the kind of thing that presidents typically do.

But this particular cemetery was the same one that President Donald Trump was supposed to visit in 2018 before canceling, citing the rain, and touching off a political furor. For Biden — running against Trump again — visiting the cemetery was meant to send a message to voters back home.

“America showed up,” he said. “America showed up.”

Biden was talking about the U.S. military during World War I. But he might as well have been talking about Trump’s refusal to show up six years ago.

Asked directly what he was trying to say about his rival in this year’s presidential race, Biden paused for a moment.

“Any other questions?” he said.

But the decision to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, at the foot of the hill where the Battle of Belleau Wood was fought, was no accident. Having already spent two days in Normandy paying tribute to American soldiers who landed on the beaches there on D-Day in 1944, Biden certainly did not need to add another event honoring veterans.

But evidently the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Neither Biden nor Trump ever served in the military, and both have had their disagreements with generals as commander in chief. But Biden’s son Beau Biden served in the Army in Iraq and the president has expressed strong feelings of attachment to veterans. Trump, by contrast, has often denigrated those who have served, a point that Biden wanted to draw attention to by his visit Sunday.

“Every time I show up at a military site where veterans are buried, it brings back memories of hearing my grandfather and my mother talk about the loss of a son and brother in the South Pacific,” Biden told reporters Sunday after placing a wreath near the cemetery’s chapel. “And I think about my son Beau.”

He also used the moment to indirectly tweak Trump, who has championed an America-first ideology and mocked NATO’s role as the protector of Europe, and who as president pulled the United States out of international compacts.

“The idea that we’re able to avoid being engaged in major battles in Europe — it’s just not realistic,” Biden said. “That’s why it’s so important that we continue to have the alliances we have. Continue to keep NATO strong.”

As a candidate in 2015, Trump scorned Sen. John McCain’s war service and privately often sounded disrespectful toward others who volunteered for military service.

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