After Donald Trump canceled a planned visit to honor fallen U.S. soldiers at a cemetery in France, Twitter was quick to remind him of all the times Barack Obama didn’t let a little gloomy weather stop him from honoring America’s fallen soldiers and veterans.
On Saturday, Trump stirred controversy by announcing that he canceled a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, which was to be a key part of his trip to France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Trump’s team cited weather problems, though the rain didn’t stop other world leaders from attending.
As the Huffington Post noted, the cancellation prompted many people to take to Twitter to reminisce about all the times that Barack Obama withstood rain and bad weather to honor fallen soldiers, and some other times he stood in the pouring rain at campaign rallies.
“Twitter responded with scads of photos of Obama campaigning or speaking at various events in the rain,” the report noted.
“A number of them featured the former president in pelting rain honoring veterans or those killed in battle.”
One of the most famous incidents came in 2010, when Obama was determined to complete a Memorial Day speech at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Illinois in stormy weather, but eventually had to relent as dangerous thunderstorms moved through.
As the Huffington Post noted in a story at the time, Obama took the stage to tell the thousands of people who came to hear him speak that “a little rain never hurt anybody but we don’t want anybody struck by lightning.”
The report noted that it was Obama’s decision to tell people to take shelter, though he stuck around to board buses and personally greet the military families who had come for the ceremony.
Barack Obama wasn’t the only one featured in the Twitter picture collages needling Donald Trump. Others showed past presidents at rainy ceremonies and even Hillary Clinton, Trump’s frequent political punching bag.
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) November 11, 2018
Others noted how conservative news outlets seemed uninterested in Donald Trump canceling a visit to honor dead U.S. Marines — on the birthday of the Marine Corps, no less — when they likely would have torn Obama apart for a similar decision.
This comparisons can be trite, but Fox would be in nonstop BREAKING NEWS coverage if Obama ever skipped a war memorial ceremony, which every world leader attended, because of rain.
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) November 10, 2018
I can only imagine what so many of my Republican brethren would have said had Barack Obama let a little rain keep him from an important World War I commemoration.
— Doug Heye (@DougHeye) November 10, 2018
While he didn’t end up attending the rainy ceremony, Donald Trump still kept busy on Saturday — on Twitter. The president spent much of the day taking aim at favorite targets, including blaming the dangerous California wildfires on “poor” forest management.