At a rain-soaked and chilly observance of Armistice Day at the Suresnes American Cemetery outside Paris on Sunday, President Trump praised the “American and French patriots” of World War I, in a speech that sharply contrasted with the political tone of an earlier address by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Joined by senior military officials, members of Congress, and dozens of other world leaders, Trump began by introducing several veterans and noting that it was Veterans’ Day in America.
“Exactly 100 years ago today, on November 11, 1918, World War I came to an end,” Trump said. “Thank God.”
He urged Americans to remember the tens of thousands of Americans killed and wounded in the “grizzly horrors” of the war, including the “legendary Marines” known as the “Devil Dogs” buried in the graves surrounding him.
“Devil Dogs — John Kelly knows that name very well, right John?” Trump said, looking toward his chief of staff, who served as a general in the Marine Corps.
Trump also presented a flag to American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) head Maj. Gen. William M. Matz, Jr., “as a symbol of our nation’s gratitude” to the agency for “memorializing our fallen heroes.”
Just minutes earlier, Macron had endorsed globalism in remarks that seemed targeted directly at other European leaders and Trump, who has proudly described himself as a nationalist who embraces an “America First” approach.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech as he attends a commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, 100 years after the end of the First World War at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, Sunday, November 11, 2018.
(Benoit Tessier/Pool Photo via AP)
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism,” Macron said. “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism.”
WATCH: TRUMP EMBRACES ‘NATIONALIST’ LABEL, SAYS GLOBALISM HURTS U.S. ON TRADE, IMMIGRATION
He added: “In saying ‘Our interests first, whatever happens to the others,’ you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: Its moral values.
A stand is set up in front the Arc de Triomphe ahead of ceremonies marking the 100th of the end of World War I, Friday, Nov.9, 2018. About 60 leaders will mark Sunday the cease-fire that came on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
“I know there are old demons which are coming back to the surface,” Macron continued. ” They are ready to wreak chaos and death. History sometimes threatens to take its sinister course once again.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May, another target of Macron’s remarks amid the dividing European Union and Brexit, was not in attendance on Sunday.
May, who visited France last week to commemorate the end of World War I, opted to attend a separate war memorial service in London. Thousands of people marched to central London’s Cenotaph war monument, where members of the royal family and other top British officials had placed wreaths.
Chinese President Xi also was not at Sunday’s ceremonies.
Polish Army soldiers salute during the official ceremony marking Poland’s Independence Day, in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018. The Independence Day in Poland celebrates the nation regaining its sovereignty at the end of World War I after being wiped off the map for more than a century. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
There were signs earlier in the weekend that the relationship between Macron and Trump has become frayed. On Saturday at the Élysée Palace, Trump seemed ill at-ease near Macron, who at one point patted Trump on the thigh without reciprocation.
At rallies and speeches throughout the year, Trump has said the U.S. — by encouraging goods and services to be made domestically, insisting that European allies contribute more funding to their own national defense, and blocking illegal immigration — can achieve greater prosperity.
WATCH: TRUMP TELLS NATO THE U.S. ISN’T THE WORLD’S PIGGY BANK
He has also sharply disputed arguments from Democrats that his support of nationalism emboldens white nationalists, saying those insinuations are themselves “racist” mischaracterizations of the concept of nationalism in international relationss.
Meanwhile, according to multiple reports, French police detained three female members of the feminist activist group Femen for what they called “sexual exhibition” during the day’s events.
One topless woman intercepted Trump’s motorcade on the Champs-Elysees avenue, strutting onto the road and yelling “fake peacemaker” as the president’s heavily-armored limousine and Secret Service SUVs passed quickly.
Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump as they attend a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, as part of commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the 11 November 1918 armistice, ending World War I, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he didn’t speak at length with Trump at the Paris events because they wanted to avoid interrupting the planned ceremonies, the Russian state-backed television network RT reported, but the two leaders plan to meet at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina later in the month.
Putin and Trump arrived separately at Sunday’s events in separate motorocades, unlike several other world leaders who rode together. White House officials cited security considerations for Trump’s travel arrangements.
Military officer Garcia plays the original Armistice bugle from 1918 under the Arc de Triomphe Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris. More than 60 heads of state and government are in France for the Armistice ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, exactly a century after the armistice. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, Pool)
Putin separately backed a plan by Macron to form a European army to “strengthen the multipolar nature of the world,” according to RT.
Remembered for brutal trench warfare and the first use of chemical weapons, World War I pitted the armies of France, the British empire, Russia and the U.S. against a German-led coalition that included the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. Almost 10 million soldiers died, sometimes tens of thousands on a single day.
The U.S. came late to the war, in April 1917, but over 1½ years it became a key player and tipped the scales for the allies. At the war’s end, the U.S. had 2 million troops in Europe and another 2 million ready to cross the Atlantic if needed, a force that turned the United States into a major military power.
With so many leaders in Paris, the commemoration also provoked a flurry of diplomacy on the sidelines, with conflict in Yemen and Syria among the hot-button issues.
On Sunday, German leader Angela Merkel met with the head of the United Nations, an organization born from the ashes of World War II, and the president of Serbia. It was a Serb teenager, Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated the Austro-Hungarian crown prince in Sarajevo in 1914 to set off events which led to the outbreak of war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
