BFF-56 Trump calls off US military cemetery visit due to bad weather

573

ZCZC

BFF-56

WWI-TRUMP-CEMETERY-WEATHER

Trump calls off US military cemetery visit due to bad weather

PARIS, Nov 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Saturday called off a trip to a World War I US military cemetery in France because of bad weather, the White House said.

After talks with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Trump cancelled his visit to Belleau Wood battlefield and cemetery 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Paris because of “scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather,” his administration said.

He and his wife Melania were to have flown to the site of a 1918 battle led by US Marines against German forces.

A US delegation led by Chief of Staff General John Kelly and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joe Dunford will visit the cemetery instead, the White House added.

Trump was due to join other world leaders for dinner at the Musee d’Orsay art museum Saturday evening, before visiting another American cemetery that holds war dead, at Suresnes, in the Paris suburbs, Sunday morning.

Some 70 leaders will gather at 11 am Sunday (1000 GMT) at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, to mark the 100th annniversary of the end of World War I.

BSS/AFP/MMA/2000HRS