Donald Trump will be in Paris this weekend to attend the Notre-Dame Cathedral reopening alongside 50 other world leaders, marking an immediate return to the international stage for the president-elect.
The cathedral is reopening to worshippers and the public alike after more than five years of reconstruction following a devastating fire in 2019 that engulfed and nearly destroyed the soaring Paris masterpiece, as Breitbart News reported.
The ceremonies being held Saturday and Sunday will be high-security affairs, with upwards of 50 heads of state and government expected to attend.
This photograph shows the restored baptistery of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, designed by French artist and designer Guillaume Bardet, in Paris on November 29, 2024. (CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump announced that he will be among them in a post on his Truth Social site Monday evening. He wrote:
It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago.
President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!
AP notes the trip will be Trump’s first abroad since he won November’s presidential election. He traveled to Scotland and Ireland in May 2023, as a candidate, to visit his local golf courses.
Trump has revealed he intends to nominate real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France.
The reopening of Notre-Dame will be an elaborate, multi-day celebration, beginning Saturday. The AP report details:
Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will preside at a reopening service that afternoon, banging on Notre Dame’s shuttered doors with his staff to reopen them, according to the cathedral’s website.
The archbishop will also symbolically reawaken Notre Dame’s thunderous grand organ. The fire that melted the cathedral’s lead roofing coated the huge instrument in toxic dust. Its 8,000 pipes have been painstakingly disassembled, cleaned and retuned.
French President Emmanuel Macron will attend and address the VIP guests including Trump whose presence shows he is getting straight onto presidential work even before his official swearing in next month.
There is no word yet if President Joe Biden will also be in the French national capital or instead spending the weekend relaxing at his Rehoboth, Delaware, beach house as is his custom.
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