Published 21:45 IST, April 16th 2019
Barack Obama and Donald Trump each responded to the Notre Dame fire in their own way, netizens contrast the two Presidents
As a massive fire broke out at Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral on Monday afternoon, US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama responded quickly on their Twitter accounts about the tragic incident.
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As a massive fire broke out at Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral on Monday afternoon, US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama responded quickly on their Twitter accounts about the tragic incident.
In their own way, both the US leaders were trying to offer support as France grappled with a tragedy that’s almost impossible to immediately process.
While Trump responded with a piece of advice for France’s Civil Security agency to act quickly and make use of aerial actions for putting out the fire, Obama sent out his heartfelt message for his 106 million followers expressing his sadness over the medieval-era monument's plight.
Here is the US President’s tactical advice on using “flying-water tanks” to put out the fire:
On the other hand, Obama’s message struck a decidedly different tone:
Soon after Trump’s advice, the French officials sent out a tweet of their own, saying all options were on the table for saving the cathedral, literally except the solution suggested by America’s President.
They explained to the US President that any aerial water dumping could "weaken the structure of Notre Dame and result in collateral damage to the buildings in the vicinity."
'Securite Civile' also informed that hundreds of firemen of the Paris fire brigade were doing everything they could but not use water-bombing aircraft to bring the horrible fire under control as it could lead to ‘collapsing of the entire structure of the cathedral’.
To which Trump later sent out a far more simple and supportive tweet:
Soon after Trump's advice, netizens discussed the difference in approaches between the two, starting with a unanimous panning of Trump telling the French firefighters how to do their job:
The comments on Obama's tweet clearly displayed how the netizens still miss him:
The inferno destroyed the roof of the 850-year-old UNESCO world heritage landmark, whose spectacular Gothic spire collapsed as orange flames and clouds of grey smoke billowed into the sky.
Around 400 firefighters battled into the night to control the flames, declaring in the early hours of Tuesday that the fire was under control, around nine hours after it broke out.
15:52 IST, April 16th 2019