The grandson of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, himself a conservative politician, slammed President Trump for missing a ceremony honoring soldiers who died during World War I because it was raining.
“They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen,” Nicholas Soames tweeted Saturday, using the hashtag “#hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry.”
They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen #hesnotfittorepresenthisgreatcountry
— Nicholas Soames (@NSoames) November 10, 2018
The White House announced Saturday that Trump would not be attending the event at Aisne-Marne American cemetery outside of Paris, while other world leaders — like French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — represented their respective countries. Instead, the U.S. delegation was led by White House chief of staff John Kelly, a former Marine general, and Joint Chiefs chairman Joseph Dunford.
In a new statement Sunday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Marine One, the presidential helicopter, was unable to fly Trump to the cemetery due to “near-zero visibility.”
“A car ride of two and a half hours, each way, would have required closures to substantial portions of the Paris roadways for the President’s motorcade, on short notice,” Sanders said. “President Trump did not want to cause that kind of unexpected disruption to the city and its people.”
Trump, however, did deliver a speech without an umbrella during a rainy Veterans Day ceremony Sunday at Suresnes Cemetery, which is closer to Paris. His speech focused on World War I history and the impact of American troops on the conflict on the centennial anniversary of the war’s end.
This is not the first time Soames has criticized Trump. The longtime Conservative British Member of Parliament last year called Trump a “daft twerp” after the president tweeted about a link between “radical Islamic terror” and a rise in crime in the U.K.
