President Trump on D-Day +75 Years : "Their mission is the story of an epic battle and the ferocious, eternal struggle between good and evil"

THE END OF A WEEK FILLED WITH HISTORY AND HEAVY EMOTION. So, let's end on a lighter note, but keeping with this week's D-Day Landings theme. • • • A BRITISH D-DAY VET SMITTEN WITH MELANIA. BizPac Review reported the sweet story on D-Day. Reporter Frieda Powers wrote : "A 93-year-old D-Day veteran proved his courage once again as he openly flirted with Melania Trump right in front of her husband. The amusing moment was captured on video as President Donald Trump met Thomas Cuthbert and thanked him for his service after a ceremony in Normandy commemorating the 75th anniversary of thousands of troops storming the beaches in World War II. 'It’s my honor, believe me,' Trump told Cuthbert, who was awarded the Legion of Honour in May 2017. 'Thank you very much. We fought well together,' the President said, shaking his hand following the hour-long D-Day ceremony. Cuthbert, from Elmstead Market, Essex, then reached out to greet the first lady, telling her it was nice to meet her before joking with the President. 'Oh, she is a nice lady, isn’t she?' he said after shaking her hand. 'If it wasn’t for you and if I was 20 years younger...' 'You can handle it, no question,' the President joked back." • The Trumps along with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles were meeting with six veterans at a small reception after watching the Red Arrows perform an aerial display when the light-hearted episode occurred. Powers noted that : "Following the reception, Cuthbert, who served on a landing barge oiler anchored offshore from Utah and Omaha beaches during the D-Day landings, remarked that Trump 'came across very well. He surprised me, when you see someone on the TV but he seemed different, he seemed one of the boys,' he added, according to the Sun. 'His wife was very pleasant as well.' " • The Sun noted that Cuthbert was apparently not the only one who was impressed -- and even a bit surprised -- by Trump, even as the mainstream media in America worked overtime to paint the President’s visit to London this week in a negative light. BizPAc Review said the Queen sent President Trump off with special parting words, saying she hoped he would come back to Britain soon, amid an overwhelmingly positive British press review of the President's visit. • When the Trumps met Joan 'Jonni' Berfield, she said : “I was very surprised, he spoke very quietly, I wasn’t expecting that,” Berfield told Metro UK, “He was very interested in what I had done, his wife was charming.” Berfield, who served as a coder during the war, was wished a happy birthday by the President after she told him she would be turning 95 on June 7. "So you were well ahead of your time,” Trump told her. “Coder, that’s pretty sound, that means very smart. Great to meet you.” • Royal Marine Douglas Chrome from Heathrow, west London, told the Queen he had been an 18-year-old gunner on a landing craft on Juno Beach and later expressed his happiness at having met the monarch and the US President : “It was a real honor to meet Her Majesty and then I saw Donald Trump. I had heard lots of things about him but he was actually very nice,” Chrome said, “He told me ‘we’re really proud of you.' ” • Ted Cordery remarked about his “eye-to-eye” meeting with Trump and how it changed his impression of the President. “He said you guys did a great job but I said it wasn’t only us -- your country did it as well, the 95-year-old veteran who had been a leading seaman torpedo-man on HMS Belfast during the war, said. “We shook hands and he said delighted to meet you. It has completely changed my mind of him,” Cordery remarked. “Eye-to-eye he is a really great guy. Honestly. Completely different to the impression I had before.” • The Sun video is available at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8923pvHa-k&feature=youtu.be >. • • • WILL GEORGE CONWAY PLEASE SIT DOWN. Liberty Headlines reported on Thursday that George Conway -- the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway -- is at it again, fuming "...over glowing UK reports of Trump’s visit." Liberty Headlines said : "Wait ’till he sees US reviews of his D-Day speech! George Conway had a meltdown on social media after President Trump touted the 'glowing reviews' from the British media on his state visit to London....Conway unloaded on the President in a tweetstorm Thursday, slamming Trump and his claim of favorable press coverage by the British media on his trip to the United Kingdom. 'Your press coverage in the UK wasn’t all that great. Let me help you out,' Conway tweeted in response to Trump’s post that quoted Fox News host Sean Hannity....Conway went on in an attempt to prove his point by unloading multiple examples of negative and unflattering stories covering Trump." But, the best Conway could produce was a Daily Express 2 comments about "Trump's protocol lapse as he PATS Queen on the shoulder as she stands to toast him during State Banquet https://trib.al/vLvqI71" and "Prince Harry is ‘COLD’ with Donald Trump after President called wife Meghan ‘nasty’ https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/1135760/donald-trump-prince-harry-meghan-markle-latest-news-pictures..." And, of course, the hyper-leftist Guardian got in a lick at the President it loves to hate, this time over climate change, saying "Trump is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/05/eight-reasons-why-trumps-clean-climate-claims-fail-to-stack-up? CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1559745037 THURSDAY, as President Trump took part in the ceremonies for 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing in Normandy, Conway also took to Twitter to attack the President and the GOP "personality cult” : "@gtconway3d · Jun 6, 2019 So according to @GOPChairwoman the D-Day anniversary is for celebrating...Donald J. Trump. If ever there was evidence that the GOP has become a personality cult, this is it. Please let her know what you think. And retweet and encourage others to let her know what you think." Here is what GOP chairwoman Ronna McDainels actually tweeted : "@GOP.@GOPChairwoman: We are celebrating the anniversary, 75 years of D-Day. This is the time where we should be celebrating our President, the great achievements of America, and I don't think the American people like the constant negativity." Former CNN pundit and GOP analyst, Jeffrey Lord, quickly put Conway in his place, tweeting : "@realJeffreyLord Wow. So you believe the President of the United States celebrating the courage of all those Americans who literally gave their lives to save the world is a personality cult. Apparently you hated Reagan as well for doing the same. Got it." • The problem for Georgez Conway is thatn according to Liberty Headlines : "Conway’s argument stemmed from the indisputable biased coverage of the mainstream media in the US as the President and First Lady visited the United Kingdom. The Hill’s Joe Concha told 'Fox & Friends' Wednesday that while the British press and other European media outlets shared positive reports of Trump’s visit -- with even Queen Elizabeth II reportedly telling him, “I hope you come to this country again soon,” -- in the US, the mainstream media focused on protests and the 'Trump Baby' balloons." Here is a Fox News video screen shot of positive Trump headlines in the British press : < https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1136351815203614720/jE1zLtlf?format=png&name=600x314 >. According to Joe Conch, media reporter for The Hill, President Donald Trump has seen more positive coverage of his state visit to the United Kingdom in the overseas press than in the American media, BUT, BizPac Review noted that : "The American media appeared to cave on Thursday as the left’s narrative could do little to misrepresent the stunning optics of Trump’s performance and his reception by those overseas, regardless of Conway’s take. Trump’s Normandy speech which commemorated the 75th anniversary of D-Day won over some of the President’s most vocal critics. CNN’s White House reporter Jim Acosta praised Trump who 'rose to the moment' in the 'most on-message moment' of his presidency." Acosta said : “We were all wondering if he would veer from his remarks, go off of his script but he stayed on script, stayed on message and, I think, rose to the moment as he was talking about the men gathered behind them he described them as being among the greatest Americans who have ever lived,” Acosta said on CNN Thursday. “That could not be more of a fact check true if we could have found one. It was really one of those moments that Donald Trump needed to rise to in order to, I think, walk away from the cemetery, walk away from this hallowed ground and have people back at home saying, you know what, no matter what I think about the current President of the United States, he said the right thing at Normandy. He did the right thing at Normandy. He really hit all of the right moments in that speech when he was paying respect to these heroes who were still with us.” And though Acosta needed to make a point of claiming the event was delayed because Trump decided to speak with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, that negative spin was soon doused with cold water as it became clear that French President Emmanuel Macron was even later getting to the ceremony." EVEN Acosta realized he ws getting in the way : “But honestly, you have to put that to the side and recognize this was just a really captivating, stirring remarkable moment for the entire world to witness. Politics was just put aside, washed aside as we remember the bravery and courage of these men today.” • AND, vocal Trump critic Joe Scarborough conceded that Trump delivered the “strongest speech of his presidency” : “There was one especially beautiful moment and I loved the thought because -- any World War II documentary you see, any Vietnam documentary you see, when the interviewer starts talking about them being heroes, they will tear up and they will say ‘the heroes were the ones that never came back.’ Well, President Trump said that that’s what these heroes were saying. The heroes were the ones buried here behind us. Yet, he went on to say -- to talk about the remarkable life that was created by this generation,” the MSNBC host said. Tom Brokaw agreed, saying that Trump “got it right,” and that the speech was “well written,” and “well delivered.” • • • SHOULD RUSSIA'S PRESIDENT PUTIN HAVE BEEN INVITED? It was BBC News that raised the issue, writing that although Putin joined the last major D-Day commemoration in 2014, he was not invited to participate in the 75th Anniversary ceremonies. BBC said : "Russian President Vladimir Putin has said it is 'not a problem' that he was not invited to join other world leaders marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in northern France : "We also don't invite everyone to every event. Why should I be invited everywhere?" Mr Putin, who was invited to the 70th anniversary event in 2014, said he had 'enough business' of his own in Russia. The comments came after his government claimed D-Day was 'not a game-changer.' Russia often accuses the West of failing to properly acknowledge the Soviet Union's role in World War Two." We can certainly disagree with President Putin about D-Day -- it was a 'game changer' -- but, the Soviet Union had been fighting German forces in the east for almost three years by the time of the D-Day operations that ultimately led to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany. AND, the Soviet Union lost more than 25 million lives in what was called the Great Patriotic War -- more than any other nation. Russia holds a massive military parade every year to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War Two and remember the role of Soviet troops. Perhaps it would have been an honest gesture, despite the problems being created by Putin's policies today, to have invited him on behalf of all the Russians who died in World War II. • Maybe the "enough business" President Putin was referring to was, as reported by Fox News Friday morning, arranging for a Russian warship to almost collide with a UN destroyer in the Philippine Sea. Fox News's Lucas Tomlinson reported that : "The US Navy says one of its warships was forced to maneuver to avoid a collision with a Russian destroyer in the Philippine Sea. The USS Chancellorsville, a guided-missile cruiser, nearly collided with the Udaloy I DD 572 when it made an 'unsafe maneuver,' coming within 50 to 100 feet....'This unsafe action forced Chancellorsville to execute all engines back full and to maneuver to avoid collision,' said the Navy’s 7th Fleet in a statement. The incident happened at 11:45 am Friday in the Philippine Sea, according to the statement. Russian state media had claimed that the US cruiser had 'hindered the passage' of the Admiral Vinogradov anti-submarine destroyer about 160 feet in front of it, forcing them to perform a dangerous maneuver in the southeastern part of the East China Sea. But the US dismissed their version of events as 'propaganda.'....'We consider Russia's actions during this interaction as unsafe and unprofessional and not in accordance with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS), 'Rules of the Road,' and internationally recognized maritime customs,' the 7th Fleet said.... It’s the second time in three days the US Navy has accused Russian forces of dangerous maneuvers after a Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a Navy reconnaissance aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean. The US P-8A Poseidon aircraft was flying in international airspace at the time of the intercepts Tuesday, Navy officials added. • Has Russia joined China in trying to defend the East China Sea as Chinese territory, or was President Putin just miffed because he wasn't invited to the D-Day ceremony? • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP'S REMARKS AT THE 75TH COMMEMORATION OF D-DAY. It is rare that everyone, including the President's sworn enemies, agree that he has done something they have to praise. His D-Day speech was one of those times -- maybe the only time so far. So, let's end the week with the text of the "Remarks by President Trump on the 75th Commemoration of D-Day" at Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France : "President Macron, Mrs. Macron, and the people of France; to the First Lady of the United States and members of the United States Congress; to distinguished guests, veterans, and my fellow Americans : We are gathered here on Freedom’s Altar. On these shores, on these bluffs, on this day 75 years ago, 10,000 men shed their blood, and thousands sacrificed their lives, for their brothers, for their countries, and for the survival of liberty. Today, we remember those who fell, and we honor all who fought right here in Normandy. They won back this ground for civilization. To more than 170 veterans of the Second World War who join us today : You are among the very greatest Americans who will ever live. You’re the pride of our nation. You are the glory of our republic. And we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Here with you are over 60 veterans who landed on D-Day. Our debt to you is everlasting. Today, we express our undying gratitude. When you were young, these men enlisted their lives in a Great Crusade -- one of the greatest of all times. Their mission is the story of an epic battle and the ferocious, eternal struggle between good and evil. On the 6th of June, 1944, they joined a liberation force of awesome power and breathtaking scale. After months of planning, the Allies had chosen this ancient coastline to mount their campaign to vanquish the wicked tyranny of the Nazi empire from the face of the Earth. The battle began in the skies above us. In those first tense midnight hours, 1,000 aircraft roared overhead with 17,000 Allied airborne troops preparing to leap into the darkness beyond these trees. Then came dawn. The enemy who had occupied these heights saw the largest naval armada in the history of the world. Just a few miles offshore were 7,000 vessels bearing 130,000 warriors. They were the citizens of free and independent nations, united by their duty to their compatriots and to millions yet unborn. There were the British, whose nobility and fortitude saw them through the worst of Dunkirk and the London Blitz. The full violence of Nazi fury was no match for the full grandeur of British pride. There were the Canadians, whose robust sense of honor and loyalty compelled them to take up arms alongside Britain from the very, very beginning. There were the fighting Poles, the tough Norwegians, and the intrepid Aussies. There were the gallant French commandos, soon to be met by thousands of their brave countrymen ready to write a new chapter in the long history of French valor. And, finally, there were the Americans. They came from the farms of a vast heartland, the streets of glowing cities, and the forges of mighty industrial towns. Before the war, many had never ventured beyond their own community. Now they had come to offer their lives half a world from home. This beach, codenamed Omaha, was defended by the Nazis with monstrous firepower, thousands and thousands of mines and spikes driven into the sand, so deeply. It was here that tens of thousands of the Americans came. The GIs who boarded the landing craft that morning knew that they carried on their shoulders not just the pack of a soldier, but the fate of the world. Colonel George Taylor, whose 16th Infantry Regiment would join in the first wave, was asked : What would happen if the Germans stopped right then and there, cold on the beach -- just stopped them? What would happen? This great American replied : “Why, the 18th Infantry is coming in right behind us. The 26th Infantry will come on, too. Then there is the 2nd Infantry Division already afloat. And the 9th Division. And the 2nd Armored. And the 3rd Armored. And all the rest. Maybe the 16th won’t make it, but someone will.' One of those men in Taylor’s 16th Regiment was Army medic Ray Lambert. Ray was only 23, but he had already earned three Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars fighting in North Africa and Sicily, where he and his brother Bill, no longer with us, served side by side. In the early morning hours, the two brothers stood together on the deck of the USS Henrico, before boarding two separate Higgins landing craft. 'If I don’t make it,' Bill said, 'please, please take care of my family.' Ray asked his brother to do the same. Of the 31 men on Ray’s landing craft, only Ray and 6 others made it to the beach. There were only a few of them left. They came to the sector right here below us. 'Easy Red' it was called. Again and again, Ray ran back into the water. He dragged out one man after another. He was shot through the arm. His leg was ripped open by shrapnel. His back was broken. He nearly drowned. He had been on the beach for hours, bleeding and saving lives, when he finally lost consciousness. He woke up the next day on a cot beside another badly wounded soldier. He looked over and saw his brother Bill. They made it. They made it. They made it. At 98 years old, Ray is here with us today, with his fourth Purple Heart and his third Silver Star from Omaha. Ray, the free world salutes you. Thank you, Ray. Nearly two hours in, unrelenting fire from these bluffs kept the Americans pinned down on the sand now red with our heroes’ blood. Then, just a few hundred yards from where I’m standing, a breakthrough came. The battle turned, and with it, history. Down on the beach, Captain Joe Dawson, the son of a Texas preacher, led Company G through a minefield to a natural fold in the hillside, still here. Just beyond this path to my right, Captain Dawson snuck beneath an enemy machine gun perch and tossed his grenades. Soon, American troops were charging up 'Dawson’s Draw.' What a job he did. What bravery he showed. Lieutenant Spalding and the men from Company E moved on to crush the enemy strongpoint on the far side of this cemetery, and stop the slaughter on the beach below. Countless more Americans poured out across this ground all over the countryside. They joined fellow American warriors from Utah beach, and Allies from Juno, Sword, and Gold, along with the airborne and the French patriots. Private First Class Russell Pickett, of the 29th Division’s famed 116th Infantry Regiment, had been wounded in the first wave that landed on Omaha Beach. At a hospital in England, Private Pickett vowed to return to battle. 'I’m going to return,' he said. 'I’m going to return.' Six days after D-Day, he rejoined his company. Two-thirds had been killed already; many had been wounded, within 15 minutes of the invasion. They’d lost 19 just from small town of Bedford, Virginia, alone. Before long, a grenade left Private Pickett again gravely wounded. So badly wounded. Again, he chose to return. He didn’t care; he had to be here. He was then wounded a third time, and lay unconscious for 12 days. They thought he was gone. They thought he had no chance. Russell Pickett is the last known survivor of the legendary Company A. And, today, believe it or not, he has returned once more to these shores to be with his comrades. Private Pickett, you honor us all with your presence. Tough guy. By the fourth week of August, Paris was liberated. Some who landed here pushed all the way to the center of Germany. Some threw open the gates of Nazi concentration camps to liberate Jews who had suffered the bottomless horrors of the Holocaust. And some warriors fell on other fields of battle, returning to rest on this soil for eternity. Before this place was consecrated to history, the land was owned by a French farmer, a member of the French resistance. These were great people. These were strong and tough people. His terrified wife waited out D-Day in a nearby house, holding tight to their little baby girl. The next day, a soldier appeared. 'I’m an American,' he said. 'I’m here to help.' The French woman was overcome with emotion and cried. Days later, she laid flowers on fresh American graves. Today, her granddaughter, Stefanie, serves as a guide at this cemetery. This week, Stefanie led 92-year-old Marian Wynn of California to see the grave of her brother Don for the very first time. Marian and Stefanie are both with us today. And we thank you for keeping alive the memories of our precious heroes. Thank you. 9,388 young Americans rest beneath the white crosses and Stars of David arrayed on these beautiful grounds. Each one has been adopted by a French family that thinks of him as their own. They come from all over France to look after our boys. They kneel. They cry. They pray. They place flowers. And they never forget. Today, America embraces the French people and thanks you for honoring our beloved dead. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. To all of our friends and partners : Our cherished alliance was forged in the heat of battle, tested in the trials of war, and proven in the blessings of peace. Our bond is unbreakable. From across the Earth, Americans are drawn to this place as though it were a part of our very soul. We come not only because of what they did here. We come because of who they were. They were young men with their entire lives before them. They were husbands who said goodbye to their young brides and took their duty as their fate. They were fathers who would never meet their infant sons and daughters because they had a job to do. And with God as their witness, they were going to get it done. They came wave after wave, without question, without hesitation, and without complaint. More powerful than the strength of American arms was the strength of American hearts. These men ran through the fires of hell moved by a force no weapon could destroy : the fierce patriotism of a free, proud, and sovereign people. They battled not for control and domination, but for liberty, democracy, and self-rule. They pressed on for love in home and country -- the Main Streets, the schoolyards, the churches and neighbors, the families and communities that gave us men such as these. They were sustained by the confidence that America can do anything because we are a noble nation, with a virtuous people, praying to a righteous God. The exceptional might came from a truly exceptional spirit. The abundance of courage came from an abundance of faith. The great deeds of an Army came from the great depths of their love. As they confronted their fate, the Americans and the Allies placed themselves into the palm of God’s hand. The men behind me will tell you that they are just the lucky ones. As one of them recently put it, 'All the heroes are buried here.' But we know what these men did. We knew how brave they were. They came here and saved freedom, and then, they went home and showed us all what freedom is all about. The American sons and daughters who saw us to victory were no less extraordinary in peace. They built families. They built industries. They built a national culture that inspired the entire world. In the decades that followed, America defeated communism, secured civil rights, revolutionized science, launched a man to the moon, and then kept on pushing to new frontiers. And, today, America is stronger than ever before. Seven decades ago, the warriors of D-Day fought a sinister enemy who spoke of a thousand-year empire. In defeating that evil, they left a legacy that will last not only for a thousand years, but for all time -- for as long as the soul knows of duty and honor; for as long as freedom keeps its hold on the human heart. To the men who sit behind me, and to the boys who rest in the field before me, your example will never, ever grow old. Your legend will never tire. Your spirit -- brave, unyielding, and true -- will never die. The blood that they spilled, the tears that they shed, the lives that they gave, the sacrifice that they made, did not just win a battle. It did not just win a war. Those who fought here won a future for our nation. They won the survival of our civilization. And they showed us the way to love, cherish, and defend our way of life for many centuries to come. Today, as we stand together upon this sacred Earth, we pledge that our nations will forever be strong and united. We will forever be together. Our people will forever be bold. Our hearts will forever be loyal. And our children, and their children, will forever and always be free. May God bless our great veterans. May God bless our Allies. May God bless the heroes of D-Day. And may God bless America. Thank you. Thank you very much."