President-elect Trump will attend the reopening celebration for Notre Dame Cathedral at Paris this weekend, his first foreign trip since the election.

The cathedral is set to reopen Saturday after more than five years of reconstruction following a devastating fire in 2019 that engulfed and nearly destroyed the soaring Paris landmark. 

The ceremonies being held Saturday and Sunday will be high-security affairs, with some 50 heads of state and government expected to attend.

Trump announced that he will be among them in a post on his Truth Social site Monday evening.

“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,” he wrote. 

“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 added.

The trip will be Trump’s first abroad since he won November’s presidential election. He traveled to Scotland and Ireland in May 2023, as a candidate, to visit his local golf courses.

Trump was president in 2019 when fire engulfed Notre Dame, collapsing its spire and threatening to destroy one of the world’s greatest architectural treasures, known for its mesmerizing stained glass.

Trump watched the inferno in horror, along with the rest of the world.

“So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris,” he wrote on what was then named Twitter, offering his advice to the city.

“Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly,” he wrote.

French officials appeared to respond shortly after, nothing that “All means” were being used to extinguish the flames, “except for water-bombing aircrafts which, if used, could lead to the collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral.”

Trump also spoke with Mr. Macron and Pope Francis at the time to offer his condolences and said he had offered them “the help of our great experts on renovation and construction.”

Trump and Mr. Macron have had a complicated relationship.

During Trump’s first term in office, Mr. Macron proved to be among the world leaders most adept at managing the American president’s whims as he tried to develop a personal connection built in no small part on flattery.

Mr. Macron was the guest of honor at Trump’s first state dinner and Trump traveled to France several times. The relationship soured, though, as Trump’s term progressed and Mr. Macron criticized him for questioning the need for the North Atlantic Treaty and raising doubts about America’s commitment to the mutual-defense pact.

As he ran for a second term this year, Trump often mocked Mr. Macron on the campaign trail, imitating his accent and threatening to impose steep tariffs on wine and champagne bottles shipped to America if France tried to tax American companies.

After Trump won another term last month, Mr. Macron rushed to win favor with the president-elect. He was among the first global leaders to congratulate Trump — even before the Associated Press called the race in his favor — and beat Prime Minister Starmer to the punch in delivering a congratulatory phone call.

“Congratulations, President @realDonaldTrump,” Mr. Macron posted on X early on Nov 6. “Ready to work together as we did for four years. With your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity.”

The reopening of Notre Dame will be an elaborate, multi-day celebration, beginning Saturday.

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris will preside at a reopening service that afternoon, banging on Notre Dame’s shuttered doors with his staff to reopen them, according to the cathedral’s website.

The archbishop will also symbolically reawaken Notre Dame’s thunderous grand organ. The fire that melted the cathedral’s lead roofing coated the huge instrument in toxic dust. Its 8,000 pipes have been painstakingly disassembled, cleaned, and retuned.

Mr. Macron will attend and address the assemblage.

After the service, opera singers Pretty Yende, from South Africa, and Julie Fuchs, from France; Chinese pianist Lang Lang; Paris-born cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Benin-born singer Angelique Kidjo; Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji, and others will perform at a concert Saturday evening, according to the show’s broadcaster, France Télévisions.

On Sunday morning, the archbishop will lead an inaugural Mass and consecration of the new altar.

Nearly 170 bishops from France and other countries will join the celebration, along with priests from all 106 parishes in the Paris diocese. The Mass will be followed by a “fraternal buffet” for the needy.

Ile de la Cité, where the cathedral sits in the middle of the River Seine, will be blocked off to tourists for the events. A public viewing area with room for 40,000 spectators will be set up along the Seine’s southern bank.

Associated Press