Trump to attend Notre-Dame reopening in first foreign trip since election

A view of the facade of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in Paris, on November 29, 2024. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday he will travel to Paris to attend this weekend's reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which was gutted by fire over five years ago, in his first foreign trip since winning the election.

Notre-Dame, a Gothic masterpiece, is one of the French capital's most beloved and visited monuments. It will reopen its doors later this week to tourists and the Catholic faithful.

Major reconstruction works have restored the 12th-century cathedral, its spire, rib vaulting, flying buttresses, stained-glass windows and carved stone gargoyles to their past glory, with the white stone and gold decorations shining brighter than ever.

Trump, who won the Nov. 5 election and is due to take office on Jan. 20, praised the government of French President Emmanuel Macron in a post on his social-media platform Truth Social 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!" he wrote.

The French government invited Trump to attend Saturday's reopening ceremony and his team has been in discussions with Macron's office about the trip, said a source familiar with the matter.

Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to questions about whether the president-elect would meet other foreign leaders in Paris.

His planned visit comes amid political turmoil in France where the government is all but certain to collapse later this week after far-right and left-wing parties submitted no-confidence motions on Monday against Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

While Trump has not gone overseas since winning re-election, he left Florida to visit New York for a sporting event and travelled to Texas with billionaire Elon Musk to watch Musk's SpaceX launch its giant Starship rocket.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas and Steve Holland; Editing by Katharine Jackson, Michelle Price, Chris Reese and Saad Sayeed)