US president-elect says he will visit Paris for ‘very special day’ celebrating restoration of fire-damaged cathedral.
Donald Trump has announced he will attend the reopening of Notre-Dame, the Paris landmark gutted by fire five years ago, in his first overseas trip since winning the United States presidential election.
The 12th-century Gothic masterpiece, which was badly damaged by fire in 2019, is set to reopen its doors to visitors and the Catholic faithful on Saturday and Sunday.
Dozens of world leaders are expected to attend the unveiling of the restoration, which French President Emmanuel Macron has likened to the healing of a “national wound”.
“It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend 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 in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
“President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!”
During his first term in office, Trump weighed in on the fire at Notre Dame as pictures of the blaze were broadcast live worldwide, suggesting that “flying water tankers” could be deployed to put out the flames.
“Must act quickly!” Trump said on Twitter, the former name for X.
French authorities dismissed the suggestion, saying that using water-bombing aircraft could result in the collapse of the “entire structure of the cathedral”.
Trump and Macron have had a complicated relationship.
Macron was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on his re-election and was the guest of honour at the former president’s first state dinner.
But the two leaders also clashed over Trump’s scepticism of NATO and France’s moves to hike taxes on US tech giants.
Notre-Dame’s restoration was made possible with 846 million euros ($887.4m) in donations provided by some 340,000 donors from 150 countries.
The five-year effort, involving some 250 companies and hundreds of experts, had an estimated cost of nearly 700 million euros ($734.3m).
Restoration chief Philippe Jost last month told a news conference that surplus donations of about 140 million euros ($147m) would be used for future preservation efforts.