Donald Trump and Joe Biden honour those from the frontline

Donald Trump honoured America’s war dead in back-to-back Memorial Day appearances, as Joe Biden made his first public appearance in months.

Donald and Melania Trump at Fort McHenry in Baltimore on Memorial Day. Picture: AP

Donald Trump honoured America’s war dead in back-to-back Memorial Day appearances, as his Democratic presidential rival, Joe Biden, made his first public appearance in months.

Eager to demonstrate national revival from the coronavirus, the US President doubled up on his public schedule, while threatening to pull the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte in August unless North Carolina’s Democratic governor gives a quick green light to the party’s plans to assemble en masse.

Jill and Joe Biden at the Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park. Picture: AP

Mr Trump first honoured the nation’s fallen at Arlington National Cemetery, where many people arrived wearing masks. Mr Trump, maskless as always in public, gave no remarks. He then travelled to Baltimore’s historic Fort McHenry, where he praised the tens of thousands of service members and national guard personnel “on the frontlines of our war against this terrible virus”.

Mr Biden emerged from his Delaware home to lay a wreath at a nearby empty park. It was a milestone in a presidential campaign that largely has been frozen.

AP