US President Donald Trump is traveling to the Normandy beaches to mark three-quarters of a century since Americans and their allies stormed the shore in a bid to wrest Europe from the Nazis.
“We are gathered here on freedom’s altar,” Trump will say in his remarks, according to excerpts of the speech provided by the White House. “On these shores, on these bluffs, on this day 75 years ago, 10,000 men shed their blood — and thousands sacrificed their lives — for their brothers, for their countries, and for the survival of liberty.”
Trump is the latest in a string of presidents to mark the anniversary of D-Day in France, each successive ceremony seeing fewer and fewer of the veterans who carried out the harrowing mission make it back to the windswept cliffs and stretches of sand. Now in their 90s, and of a thinning generation with first-hand memory of the war, those veterans will join Trump and other world leaders to mark the occasion near the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.
Trump is expected to deliver remarks and meet with some of the few remaining survivors from that day — many of whom were teenagers when they received their orders. Later he’ll sit for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron before departing for his golf course in Ireland, where he is spending two nights.
Source : Nbcnewyork
