Trump, Macron parade Bastille Day warmth

Paris, July 15
French President Emmanuel Macron and US counterpart Donald Trump marked France’s National Day together today at a military parade that showcased their warming relations.
Macron invited Trump to be his guest of honour at the pomp-filled military parade down the Champs-Elysees which the two men watched with their wives. The Bastille Day celebrations were also tinged with mourning, one year on since a vicious Islamist attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice where a man drove a truck into a crowd, killing 86 persons.
The Paris parade this year marked the centenary of the US entering World War I in 1917 and was set to feature 63 planes, 29 helicopters, 241 horses and 3,720 soldiers.
Macron, standing in a jeep surrounded by dozens of republican guardsmen on horseback, smiled and waved to the crowds amassed along the Champs-Elysees as he arrived for the parade.
“This is a wonderful national celebration,” Trump said at a joint news conference with Macron yesterday, adding: “We look very much forward to it. Spectacular.” “Our two nations are forever joined together by the spirit of revolution and the fight for freedom,” he added.
Macron rolled out the red carpet for Trump’s two-day visit, hoping to improve relations and persuade the US President to change his mind about withdrawing from the global Paris agreement on climate change. The warm body language between the two leaders evident in Paris was at odds with broader concerns about the transatlantic relationship since Trump’s election victory in November last year.
The Trumps and Macrons enjoyed a “dinner between friends” yesterday at a Michelin-starred restaurant on the Eiffel Tower, enjoying beef with truffle sauce and warm strawberry and yogurt sorbet. Trump also said yesterday the bond between the US and France, as well as the friendship between him and Macron, was “unbreakable.”
Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 — the start of the French Revolution and a turning point in world history.
This year’s celebrations are likely to be more sombre than usual, with Nice remembering last year’s victims when a Tunisian man drove a truck in into a crowd of families watching a fireworks display. In less than three minutes, 86 people lost their lives, and another 450 were hurt.