President Donald Trump honored America’s war dead in back-to-back Memorial Day appearances colored by an epic struggle off the battlefield, against the coronavirus.
Trump first honored the nation’s fallen at Arlington National Cemetery. Presidents on Memorial Day typically lay a wreath and speak at the hallowed burial ground in Virginia. But the coronavirus crisis made this year different.
Many attendees arrived wearing masks but removed them for the outdoor ceremony in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Trump gave no remarks. He approached a wreath already in place, touched it, and saluted.
Trump then traveled to Baltimore’s historic Fort McHenry, where he declared: “Together we will vanquish the virus and America will rise from this crisis to new and even greater heights. No obstacle, no challenge and no threat is a match for the sheer determination of the American people.”
He released a video compilation of sights and sounds from the visit.
You can watch it below:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
He praised the tens of thousands of service members and National Guard personnel “on the front lines of our war against this terrible virus.”
His Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, chose Memorial Day to make his first public appearance in the two months since the pandemic closed down the nation. Biden emerged from his Delaware home to lay a wreath at a nearby park, with no crowd gathered to greet him. It was a milestone in a presidential campaign that has largely been frozen.
Biden’s words were muffled through a black cloth face mask. “Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made,” he said after. “Never, ever forget.”
The Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine commemorates the site where Francis Scott Key wrote a poem after a huge American flag was hoisted to celebrate an important victory over the British during the War of 1812. That poem became “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The fort is closed to the public because of the pandemic.
Baltimore’s Democratic Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young objected to Trump’s visit in advance, saying it sends the wrong message about stay-at-home directives and the city could not afford the added cost of hosting him.
Trump was not dissuaded.
“The brave men and women who have preserved our freedoms for generations did not stay home and the president will not either as he honors their sacrifice by visiting such a historic landmark in our nation’s history,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in an emailed statement Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this article