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Trump Trip to Notre Dame Sends Signal on Europe, Christianity
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Trump Trip to Notre Dame Sends Signal on Europe, Christianity

What will president-elect pray for in cathedral restored to “glory”?

Ira Stoll's avatar
Ira Stoll
Dec 03, 2024
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Trump Trip to Notre Dame Sends Signal on Europe, Christianity
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A residential yard on a side street in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood features a Trump banner together with a sign for Catholic Memorial high school. Photo: The Editors, December 2, 2024.

Of all the news out of the Trump transition, some of the most encouraging relates to the decision of the president-elect to travel to Paris this coming weekend for, as Trump put it, “the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago.”

Trump said President Macron “has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so.” Trump predicted that the re-opening “will be a very special day for all!”

It’s a remarkable announcement, given that President Biden and Vice President Harris have spent the last year claiming that Trump was preparing to scrap NATO and abandon Europe to Russia. Trump isn’t merely paying lip service to U.S.-Europe ties—he’s making the unusual step of a foreign trip by a president-elect to show his commitment. He has also quickly moved to name trusted figures to represent him in European capitals, selecting his mekhutn Charles Kushner as ambassador to France and Warren Stephens to be ambassador to the Court of St James’s.

To judge by the flow of post-election foreign visitors through Mar-a-Lago—including Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, President Milei of Argentina, and Sara and Yair Netanyahu of Israel—the second Trump term may be less isolationist, and more internationalist, than many expected or in some cases feared (or hoped). In that context, the Paris trip sends a message about the place of Europe in American policy, and the potential for partnership, in a second Trump term. Everyone is aware of the threat of tariffs on Communist China, but the world hasn’t quite woken up to the growth potential of warmer, closer commercial relations between the U.S., Europe, and the U.K.

Beyond that, and relatedly, Trump’s visit to Notre Dame sends a message that isn’t only about geopolitics or trade, but about religion and culture.

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