Remarks by President Trump and President Macron of France Before Bilateral Meeting | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

Prefecture of Calvados  •  Caen, France  •  June 6  •  2:37 P.M. CEST

    PRESIDENT MACRON: I will say a few words in English, and I will repeat them exactly what I say. And I wanted first to thank you, President Donald Trump, for your presence here in this place. And thanks to your country, your nation, and your veterans.

    This morning, we paid this tribute to their courage. And I think it was a great moment to celebrate, and celebrate these people.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: It was.

    PRESIDENT MACRON: And I think your presence here to celebrate them, and their presence, is, for me, the best evidence of this unbreakable links between our two nations.

    From the very beginning of the American nation and all over the different centenaries, I think this message they conveyed to us, and our main tribute, is precisely to protect freedom and democracy everywhere. And this is why I'm always extremely happy to discuss with you in Washington, in Paris, or everywhere, in Caen today, because we work very closely together. Our soldiers work very closely together in Sahel, in Iraq, in Syria. Each time freedom and democracy is at stake, we work closely together and we will follow up.

    So, thanks for this friendship. Thanks for what your country did for my country. And thanks for what we will do together for both of us and the rest of the world.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Well, thank you very much. And I will say we've had great success working together, too - whether it's the caliphate, or whether it was a couple of other things we did militarily. And you know what I'm talking about. And your military is excellent. My people report back; they say it's absolutely excellent. But they work very well together.

    This was a very special day, and I want to thank you for inviting me. This was something that was - we read about it all our lives: Normandy. And there was - there are those that say it was the most important ever, not just at that time, but ever. And to be a part of it and to have number 75 - 75 years - was very, very special.

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    So we very much appreciate it. We met some great people today, some tremendous people. Some very brave people. And I look forward to coming back. We'll be coming back. Hopefully, over the years, we'll be coming back. But it's a very special place. It's an amazing place. And it's somewhere - when you think of those places of great importance, this is certainly one of the top. In the eyes of some, it's the top because of what it meant in terms of the turnaround of a very, very bad situation. That was the big turn.

    So I really enjoyed it. Seeing it firsthand was something. And we're going to be now discussing, first of all, this beautiful place where we ended up. I hope everybody can appreciate. I'd love you to maybe tell some of the folks in the media just quick, like you did me, how it started with Napoleon. It's a very interesting place that we're in.

    And, as you know, France has many interesting places. But we'll be discussing, to me, just as interesting as trade and military, and all sorts of things. So we're going to spend a little time together.

    And then I'll be going back probably tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon. We've pretty much finished up. We've had a very hectic schedule. Most of you had been with us from the beginning, but it's been a beautiful schedule.

    Got to know the Queen. The Queen is a great woman, as you know. And we had a very, very good talk with the United Kingdom and a lot of good talks on trade. And you know what's going on over there. It's a complex subject because of Brexit. Nobody knows where it ends up, but I know it's going to end up very well.

    And then we came here, and a lot of people are anxious to see what we're going to be doing together. Because, as you know, we know what a lot of other people don't know. We're doing a lot together. And the relationship between you and I, and also France and the United States, has been outstanding. I don't think it's ever been maybe as good. It's been good sometimes, and sometimes it hasn't been. But, right now, it's outstanding.

    So the relationship that we've had together has been really terrific, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you, Mr. President.

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    Q   Mr. President, what were the two of you talking about in the cemetery? You looked animated at one point. Then you turned away from us. We were trying to read your lips.

    PRESIDENT TRUMP: I just - you know, we were talking about the depth and the number of people killed. You know, we had a - they call them the "guides." And they were guiding us. They were telling us what happened and when. And they talked about the first wave came in, and 92 percent of the people in the first wave were killed. And then the second wave came in, and it was 80 percent were killed. And then third wave and fourth wave. And then, I guess, they said the sixth wave they broke through. It's like a dam. They broke through.

    And it was so incredible and so fascinating. And then you talk about bravery, but when you think 92 percent of the people were killed in the first wave.

    So it kept going down, down, down, and then they break through. And it's a lot of courage and a lot of heartbreak, but an incredible victory. Just one of the most important victories, wouldn't you say? So you might want to respond.

    PRESIDENT MACRON: No, I - you're perfectly right. We had a lot of discussions indeed, and all these events were described. And I think what is a very important thing, especially for our young generation, having shared this world with these actual heroes - these veterans - is that a lot of things probably we take for granted were precisely (inaudible), or protected by these guys. And lot of these veterans - and, I mean, I think you told it during the speech - came back for the very first time after the war. And they came here. They took a lot of risks. They put their life at risk for our country and for liberty.

    And I think, for our young generation in the U.S. and in France, it's extremely important to see these veterans are - as actual heroes - are those precisely thanks to all these maneuvers and these actions allowed our country to be free.
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