President Trump attended another scheduled visit to a US cemetery outside Paris on Sunday
President Trump attended another scheduled visit to a US cemetery outside Paris on Sunday

White House defends Trump World War one no-show

The White House has defended US President Donald Trump's decision to miss a memorial event on Saturday after he faced a backlash.

Mr Trump, who was in France to mark the centenary of World War One's end, cancelled a visit to a US military cemetery amid heavy rain.

Bad weather and "near-zero visibility" grounded the presidential helicopter.

Mr Trump was reluctant to bring extra Paris traffic for a last-minute motorcade, officials said.

"President Trump did not want to cause that kind of unexpected disruption to the city and its people," press secretary Sarah Sanders said, noting the trip was 60 miles (96km) north-east of Paris.

Mr Trump spent much of Saturday at the American ambassador's residence, and visited another US cemetery in a Paris suburb on Sunday.

Critics observed how Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had travelled 118 miles outside Paris to attend a ceremony - in the rain - at a cemetery in Vimy.

Notable criticism came from British Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood, who took an apparent swipe at the president on Twitter, saying "rain did not prevent our brave heroes from doing their job".

His comments followed a scathing rebuke from Sir Nicholas Soames, a grandson of the wartime British leader Sir Winston Churchill.

The MP tweeted that Mr Trump was not fit to represent the US and said that he was a "pathetic inadequate" for not defying the weather "to pay his respects to the fallen".

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