He caused some outrage on Saturday.
Donald Trump didn’t attend an event honouring US military dead because he didn’t want to disrupt the traffic in Paris, the White House explained on Sunday.
The President didn’t attend an event organised at Aisne-Marne American cemetery and memorial at Belleau, about 100 kilometres north of Paris, where he was supposed to lay a wreath on Saturday, because White House Officials said heavy rain had grounded his helicopter.
In the wake of criticism that Mr Trump didn’t travel by car to the event, his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement on Sunday saying that the weather and “near-zero visibility” led to Trump’s absence from the event, as well as concerns that a motorcade on short notice would have required closing substantial portions of area roadways.
“President Trump did not want to cause that kind of unexpected disruption to the city and its people,” Sanders said.
She also said the journey would have taken the motorcade two and a half hours each way by car.
Trump spent the majority of Saturday at the US ambassador’s residence following a meeting and lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron.
He was in Paris for events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
