The 2018 US presidential visit to France continues to stir controversy as media outlets report further details of Donald Trump's unique decisions during the visit, with the latest report highlighting the President's interest in a few art pieces that were displayed at the US ambassador to France's residence which he decided to take back to the White House.
Trump fancied several of the pieces in the U.S. ambassador’s historic residence in Paris, where he was staying, and on a whim had them removed and loaded onto Air Force One.
— dan horwi5z (@dan_horwi5z) September 6, 2020
He thinks US stuff is his. He thinks he owns the country.
According to Bloomberg, the US President had spent several hours at the US ambassador's residence during his November 2018 visit, when he fancied a number of statues showing Greek mythical characters and ordered that they be moved to Washington, DC aboard Air Force One.
Trump had also reportedly eyed a portrait and a bust featuring the former US founding father Benjamin Franklin, and the set of silver figurines, which he insisted should all be displayed back in the White House. The report noted that the ambassador Jamie McCourt didn't object to Trump's order at that time, even though "he was startled by it."
This is how Trump spent his time after cancelling the French Memorial to our fallen soldiers. Typical thievery. https://t.co/E9WPQwFKA7
— Tony Martillo theBluntTruth (@martillo_tony) September 7, 2020
The report cited officials in the US embassy in France, who said that the art pieces are worth about $750,000.
However, the report adds that art curators, who had examined the pieces in DC, had disclosed that they all were replicas of the originals that were displayed in the Smithsonian Museum only a few blocks from the White House.
No one take him to the Smithsonian. The president liked what he saw and wanted the artwork for the White House. https://t.co/AA217PV9rR via @slate
— Jean says Flynn sold out his country (@Jean28387727) September 7, 2020
The thief in Chief?
— Joaquin (Kino) Gil (@kinogilfilms) September 7, 2020
This came only a few days after a report by the Atlantic, in which Trump had reportedly rejected to visit a US cemetery of fallen American soldiers during WWI, after he described them as "losers and suckers" because they had met their fates during the war.
Trump had since denied the Atlantic reporting, citing the bad weather conditions as the reason behind him not making it to the cemetery.
This, from Donald "Bone Spurs" Trump: "Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers” referring to America's war dead resting in Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris. His concern? "He feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain."https://t.co/F8d1JSy5Vx
— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) September 4, 2020
