Staff Reports
Jill Biden is off on one of her final hurrahs as First Lady, embarking on a meticulous six-day tour through Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, culminating in a grand celebration at Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral with none other than President-elect Donald Trump. The event serves as a nostalgic bow for Jill, who also hopes to keep herself in the headlines by championing various causes like military family support and women’s health while sipping espressos and doling out feel-good platitudes to foreign dignitaries.
For those keeping track, this marks Jill’s tenth solo trip abroad. She’s been busy, hopping from the Tokyo Olympics to Ukraine and just about every continent that isn’t labeled Canada or Mexico. It’s as if she’s taking a victory lap for her husband’s administration or trying to distract from it. The itinerary features her ancestral hometown of Gesso in Italy, where she can connect with the old country, presumably to remind herself and others that being Italian is part of her identity—whether that shines through in policy is quite another matter.
In Italy, she’ll be paying homage to military families and her late father, a WWII Navy signalman. That might not sit well with those who believe her focus on military struggles is just a token gesture while basking in the cultural luxuries of foreign nations. But who can argue against a little PR while shaking hands in Abu Dhabi and toasting the royal family in Qatar? There’s always a banquet involved when it comes to diplomacy, especially when there’s pasta to be eaten and lavish feasts to attend.
Jill Biden was departing Tuesday on her final solo foreign trip as first lady, a six-day, four-country jaunt through Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar that wraps with her and President-elect Donald Trump joining other dignitaries in Paris to… https://t.co/nbvAvGeYxr
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) December 3, 2024
Biden’s itinerary reads like a brochure for elite global travel. From a cancer moonshot initiative at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi to a high-profile dinner in Qatar, it’s easy to think that perhaps she’s living the life of a well-paid spokesperson rather than engaging in any substantive diplomacy. One has to wonder if these talks and tours truly lead to meaningful solutions or simply serve as a way to burnish a legacy that depends more on family ties and optics than real policy.
While the First Lady’s office insists this trip is about partnerships and progress, it’s difficult not to see a bit of a campaign trail feel infused into every stop. The Notre Dame reopening ceremony in Paris will certainly offer a flashy finale to what feels like a worldwide junket. As Jill wraps up this escapade, eyes will surely turn back to Washington, where the focus will shift from French renovations to whatever elusive Biden strategy might take center stage next— or, as it often seems, back to Trump.
