Trump returns to Europe for the 1st time fol­low­ing elec­tion win for Notre Dame’s reopen­ing

Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump will be in France this week­end to cel­e­brate the reopen­ing of the famed Notre Dame Cathe­dral along­side sev­er­al world lead­ers, mark­ing his first for­eign trip fol­low­ing his elec­tion vic­to­ry last month.

Trump announced his plan on Mon­day to attend the cel­e­bra­to­ry reopen­ing on his social media app Truth Social, which comes five years after a fire dev­as­tat­ed the cathe­dral in 2019. The 700-mil­lion-euro restora­tion project was fund­ed by dona­tions from 150 coun­tries and involved the appli­ca­tion of car­pen­try meth­ods dat­ing back to the 13th cen­tu­ry. Sources famil­iar with the pres­i­dent-elec­t’s plans told Fox News that Trump’s atten­dance was at the invi­ta­tion of French Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron.

Secu­ri­ty will be tight for the invite-only fes­tiv­i­ties that are set to begin Sat­ur­day after­noon, Paris Police Chief Lau­rent Nuñez said in an inter­view pub­lished by French media out­let Le Parisien. He said many of the mea­sures will mim­ic those deployed dur­ing the Paris Olympics.

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Nuñez also indi­cat­ed that about 50 heads of state would be in atten­dance but did not spec­i­fy whom or from which coun­tries. Pres­i­dent Biden, how­ev­er, is not expect­ed to attend, but first lady Jill Biden will be there.

Macron was the first for­eign leader to con­grat­u­late Trump after his elec­tion win over Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris, CNN report­ed. The pair’s rela­tion­ship head­ing into Trump’s sec­ond term will build on what the two estab­lished dur­ing Trump’s first term.

While the two trad­ed barbs dur­ing Trump’s first term in the White House, Macron has shown a lev­el of def­er­ence – at times – toward Trump that oth­er NATO lead­ers have not. Reporters have described the pair’s rela­tion­ship as a “bro­mance,” and in 2017, the two par­tic­i­pat­ed in a Bastille Day mil­i­tary parade in Paris aimed at high­light­ing the long­stand­ing alliance between France and the U.S. 

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Trump’s push to get oth­er NATO coun­tries to con­tribute more mon­ey to defense efforts – and his over­all skep­ti­cism of the alliance – has been a point of con­tention between Trump and oth­er NATO lead­ers. Ger­man Chan­cel­lor Angela Merkel, for instance, clashed with Trump over his claims Ger­many was not con­tribut­ing enough to NATO’s defense efforts. 

Dur­ing a NATO sum­mit in 2019, a cohort of glob­al lead­ers, includ­ing Cana­di­an Prime Min­is­ter Justin Trudeau, then-British Prime Min­is­ter Boris John­son, then-Dutch Prime Min­is­ter Mark Rutte and France’s Macron, were caught on a hot-mic seem­ing­ly mak­ing fun of Trump for engag­ing in long, ram­bling press con­fer­ences. The year pri­or, dur­ing a speech at the U.N., audi­ble laugh­ter could be heard after he said his admin­is­tra­tion had accom­plished more in its first two years than any oth­er admin­is­tra­tion in his­to­ry.

How­ev­er, head­ing into Trump’s sec­ond term, world lead­ers seem to be aware of the impor­tance of forg­ing a good rela­tion­ship with him. Just last week, Trudeau trav­eled to Trump’s Flori­da resort after the pres­i­dent-elect threat­ened to slap tar­iffs on Cana­di­an prod­ucts over con­cerns about ille­gal immi­gra­tion. 

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Ear­li­er this week, new British Prime Min­is­ter Keir Starmer hailed Britain’s and the U.S.’ “spe­cial rela­tion­ship,” before recall­ing when the pres­i­dent-elect “gra­cious­ly host­ed me for din­ner in Trump Tow­er,” dur­ing an annu­al ban­quet host­ed by the Lord May­or of Lon­don. 

Trump’s arrival in the French cap­i­tal coin­cides with Macron’s strate­gic efforts to sta­bi­lize a gov­ern­ment in tur­moil. Fol­low­ing the oust­ing of his prime min­is­ter through a no-con­fi­dence vote, Macron now con­fronts increas­ing demands for his own res­ig­na­tion.