National security requires, the next two foreign trips of the American president have been overlooked. Scheduled for the end of the week, Joe Biden’s visits to Germany then to Angola have been postponed sine die due to the trajectory and power predicted for Hurricane Milton,” the White House said on Tuesday. On the sidelines of a meeting with his advisors to take stock of preparations, Joe Biden warned: Milton well could be “Florida’s worst storm in a century.”
The occupant of the Oval Office ordered residents of the southeastern state to evacuate “now”. “It’s a question of life and death,” he insisted as the hurricane deemed “extremely dangerous” is due to arrive this Wednesday, August 10. Joe Biden nevertheless indicated that he “still intended” to go to Angola, and indicated that he intended to speak during the day with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Natural disasters, an explosive subject across the Atlantic
Less than a month before the presidential election which pits Vice-President Kamala Harris against former Republican President Donald Trump, the subject of natural disasters has become politically explosive. So, Are Joe Biden and the Democratic candidate the target of fierce criticism from the Trumpist camp which accuses them, including by putting forward false information, of not having committed enough resources to respond to another hurricane, Hélène. At the end of September, the latter ravaged certain areas of the southeast of the United States, in Florida but also in Georgia and North Carolina in particular.
Joe Biden was due to make a state visit to Berlin on Friday, then meet there on Saturday with Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The four leaders were then scheduled to attend an international summit of Ukraine’s allies at Ramstein, a major US base in the southwest of the country, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This European farewell tour was to offer the American president a last chance to reassure allies worried about a possible victory for Donald Trump after the presidential election on November 5. For his part, the conservative billionaire has already promised to resume the commercial hostilities which marked his first term, if he were to be elected a second time to the White House.