Joe Biden offers all the ceremonial for France’s President. He cannot whitewash the trade conflict. In addition to the Ukraine war in focus: US protectionism.
21 gun salutes, military music and formations in historical uniforms greeted the guests from Paris, who were accommodated in the Blair House, the guest room of the White House. Joe Biden performed the entire ceremonial for the state visit of Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, their second in four years and the first of his term. A very rare honor.
At the state banquet for the “oldest ally” of the United States, the President served exquisite specialties: lobster from Maine, blue cheese from Oregon, and wines from California’s Napa Valley. Music star Jon Batiste provided entertainment in the garden tent. The evening before, the presidential couple had had plenty of opportunity for conversation at a tête-à-tête in an Italian restaurant in the Georgetown district. As a guest gift, Macron brought a record as a reminder of the Bidens’ first cinema date: the film music to Claude Lelouch’s “Un homme et une femme”.
France’s president, still one of the youngest at 44, has become the longest-serving of the EU heavyweights and has become the successor to Angela Merkel at European level. Olaf Scholz, Pedro Sánchez, Giorgia Meloni – none come close to his stature. Biden also courted Macron as the most prominent opinion leader in Europe, who sometimes takes a different path, puts forward his own reform ideas and criticizes the Allies. The French head of state traveled to Washington with the intention of “synchronizing the agenda” into which disharmony had crept.