World leaders mark 75 years since D-Day

US President Donald Trump landed in France yesterday to join other world leaders on the beaches of Normandy in a tribute to the veterans and dead heroes of the D-Day landings that shaped the outcome of World War II. Despite being largely blamed for growing international discord, Trump headed to join in the attempted show of transatlantic harmony on the 75th anniversary of the assault.

“Heading over to Normandy to celebrate some of the bravest that ever lived,” the US leader tweeted on arrival in France. “We are eternally grateful!” French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier paid tribute to D-Day veterans at the start of Thursday’s commemorations for the soldiers who surged onto the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.

On an occasion mixing high politics with poignant historical remembrance, Macron met first with May at Ver-sur-Mer, where they laid the first stone for a new British memorial to fallen soldiers. “Standing here as the waves wash quietly onto the shore below us, it’s almost impossible to grasp the raw courage it must have taken that day to leap from landing craft and into the surf, despite the fury of battle,” May said.

Under a bright blue sky, she finished her speech by addressing the assembled veterans, whose numbers dwindle with each major anniversary. “I want to say the only words we can: thank you,” she said in her final international appearance before she steps down as leader of the Conservative party on Friday.

Britain’s delayed departure from the European Union, which has cost May her job as prime minister, is just one of many rifts that has opened recently among Western allies, whose alliance forged in World War II is under unprecedented strain. The man blamed for most of the discord, Trump, was set to arrive in northern France for a ceremony at the US military cemetery at Colleville-surMer overlooking Omaha Beach where 9,400 US servicemen are buried.