EU/FOREIGN DIGNITARIES/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “European leaders are subjecting President Donald Trump to a crash course in history, hoping to use D-Day commemorations to shake his skepticism about alliances that have kept global peace for three-quarters of a century. The President saw for himself on Thursday the human price paid by thousands of Americans buried under poignant, regimented rows of white gravestones overlooking the beaches they stormed under curtains of Nazi fire on June 6, 1944. Their sacrifice in the Normandy landings helped purchase 75 years of European freedom and prosperity, and enshrined America as the leading world power and guarantor of Western democracy. During the President’s three days in Britain built around D-Day observances, it became clear that his interlocutors hope he will gain a new appreciation for how American engagement and common sacrifice built a postwar age that benefited millions but is now under threat from outside forces — and incredibly, from the President of the United States himself. Queen Elizabeth II, British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have all stressed the need to maintain alliances increasingly under pressure from internal populist forces and rising competition in the East.”
–Stephen Collinson, “European leaders give Trump a history lesson,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 5, 2019 7:41 am