Good grief, we don't need all this pomp.

[milestogo]

We have no royalty, we don't even have dignity any more.

[LiberalFighter]

1. DFR we don't!

And nitwit Tweety is googagging about it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Pretty standard state dinner stuff - nothing unusual for that sort of thing.

I'm just waiting to see whether Spanky gets his two scoops of ice cream or blows his nose on the tablecloth. Check out the photos of past state dinners: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/04/photos-from-state-dinners-past/558578/

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Isnt the dictator going to have 500 troops reviewed or something?

Wannabe dictator I mean, rump is so fucking stupid that he cant even do that right.

[democratisphere]

4. This is how drumpf competes with French Military Parades.

Rediculus.

[procon]

5. Every administration has grand state dinners, they are one of the few occasions

where the country can boast with a bit of pomp to impress other heads of state. Not counting Trump, it looks no different than other state occasions I can recall, and to do anything less would have been an insult to France.

[TomSlick]

6. State visits - dinners and all - are common.

We've got one whole lot more to worry about than state visits. Besides, Pres. Macron might, just might mind you, be able to keep Trump from killing the Iran deal. I'd go for a military parade (a uniquely bad idea) if it saves the Iran deal.

[spanone]

7. trump is playing "King For A Day"

all this praise and adoring attention must really make the narcissist feel soooo gooood

[MineralMan]

8. On a national scale, it's like me bringing

out the good China and tableware and setting it out on my linen tablecloth in the dining room when we have guests for dinner. Rack of lamb is one of the things I often serve those guests in my 1954 ranch home in a modest St. Paul neighborhood.

In the White House they do it a bit fancier yet, when entertaining heads of state. Normal procedure. That's how it works.

[politicaljunkie41910]

9. When the Military were waiting on the Portico for Macron's arrival, I kept staring at the Portico

because it looked different. I kept thinking, that place looks different and then I thought, the steps and the entire entrance of the Portico looked different. This morning I had noticed that they had a tarp in front of the Portico where the cars usually pull up to, so you could not see the White House Portico that guests normally enter through. As we were awaiting the Macron's arrival I couldn't help staring at how different the steps and the Portico concrete floor/ground looked. It did look very nice which is why it was so noticeable and I couldn't stop staring at it. I concluded that Melania must have had it all redone for her first State Dinner. I said to myself "Now I guess she couldn't have French royalty walking on concrete that had been walked on before by peasants, could she?" I thought to myself, "these people sure love to spend other people's money don't they? I'm surprised she didn't just tear down the White House and start over from scratch."

When the Macron's finally arrived for the dinner, whomever was narrating what we were seeing, mentioned about the Portico entrance looking different, and then said that this wasn't the normal Portico that we are used to seeing dignitary arriving at and that this was the (West, or North or South, can't remember which) Portico that we were seeing. It was not the fill-in-the-blank Portico we are use to seeing dignitaries arrive at for State Dinners. I thought, "Well, okay I'm glad it wasn't just me that noticed that something looked different." I guess I owe Melania an apology "in my head" for thinking "in my head" that she was trying to redo the whole White House for her first dinner.