After 11 people were killed at the synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, Trump did not cancel his rally that night using a provably false reason.
"With what happened early today, that horrible, horrible attack in Pittsburgh, I was saying maybe I should cancel both this and that," and then explained that after 9/11,
"a friend of mine, great guy, he headed up the New York Stock Exchange on September 11th, and the New York Stock Exchange was open the following day. He said what they had to do to open it you wouldn’t believe, we won’t even talk to you about it. But he got that exchange open. We can’t make these sick, demented, evil people important.
We can't allow people like this to become important. And when we change all of our lives in order to accommodate them, it's not acceptable.
So, I thought of it for a little while, and the press said, 'Are you going to cancel these two events?' And, frankly, the Future Farmers, I could have done that one. But this is a rally for Mike Bost – and frankly this one, maybe I could have – except I don't want to change our life for somebody that's sick, and evil. And I don't think we ever should."
But the Stock exchange did not open the next day, but a few days later.
He bathed in cheers from the crowd that night.
He says he loves the troops, obvious more than anyone else ever, and had wanted a huge parade for them on Memorial day, but that got cancelled for real and butt-covering reasons.
So being in France on the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, this was his opportunity to give tribute to the troops who fought and died in “the War to End All Wars.”
However, at the last minute, Trump had to cancel his attendance at a ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau to pay tribute to the fallen.
He and Melania could not attend the ceremony being held 50 miles outside Paris because a light rain prevented his helicopter from traveling to the site.
"(Their attendance) has been canceled due to scheduling and logistical difficulties caused by the weather," the White House said in a statement.
No one had made Plan B to have ground transportation ready in case, for whatever reason, the helicopter could not make the trip.
Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired general, and a delegation went instead.
The grandson of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill tweeted,
"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."
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel braved the mist and held a moving ceremony in Compiegne, northeast of Paris, and notwithstanding that same mist, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended his own ceremony to pay tribute to Canadian troops killed at Vimy Ridge in northeastern France.
While at the residence of the U.S. ambassador in Paris, Trump sent a tweet wishing a "Happy 243rd Birthday" to the U.S. Marine Corps.
Wrong event.
He has a second chance to pay tribute to the dough-boys as he is scheduled to take part in a ceremony at the Suresnes American Cemetery to the west of Paris on Sunday afternoon.
Let’s hope for sunny weather. Troops are easier to love when the weather is good.
As Thomas Paine wrote in The Crises,
“The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country."