At the D-Day ceremonies in France, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak once again demonstrated why he’s no Margaret Thatcher. In the midst of an already disastrous general election campaign, Sunak committed a blunder that the Iron Lady would never have even contemplated committing. He went AWOL, leaving early to do a TV hit back home. He swiftly apologized on X—“On reflection, it was a mistake not to stay in France longer—and I apologise”—but the damage was done. The spotlight went to former British PM and current foreign secretary, David Cameron, who joined French President Emmanuel Marcon, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Biden for a photograph at Omaha Beach.

Even as Sunak flamed out, President Joe Biden was trying to win one for the Gipper. He sought to profile himself as following in Ronald Reagan’s footsteps—and as offering a stark contrast with former president Donald Trump who, during his visit to Normandy in 2018, dismissively referred to fallen service members as “losers” and “suckers,” according to his then-chief of staff John F. Kelly. Reagan delivered a famous address at Ponte du Hoc, where 225 Rangers scaled the daunting cliffs to disable a German gun emplacement, in 1984 that helped to bolster his reelection campaign. Biden invoked the memory of the Rangers, declaring, “Does anyone believe these Rangers want America to go it alone today? They sought to vanquish a hateful ideology of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Does anyone doubt they would move heaven and earth to vanquish hateful ideologies of today?”  He added, “We must also be the keepers of their mission, the keepers of their mission, the bearers of the flame of freedom that they kept burning bright. To come here simply to remember the ghosts of Pointe-du-Hoc isn’t enough.”

In a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden depicted his country’s struggle as consonant with the battle during World War II for freedom against the Nazis. He also went out of his way to apologize to Zelensky for the delay in the passage of a $61 billion military aid package that had been stymied by what he referred to as “very conservative” lawmakers.  It finally passed in April. Meanwhile, Macron has promised to supply Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Kyiv and Zelensky addressed the French National Assembly on Friday. “Unfortunately, we live in a time,” Zelensky said, “when Europe is no longer a continent of peace.”

Will Biden’s trip abroad help bolster his standing at home? In essence, Biden is running on the same theme that he ran on in 2020. Then, as now, he depicted Trump as a clear and present danger to American democracy. If anything, the stakes, as Biden presents them, are even higher than they were during his first run for the presidency.

Trump has been enraged by the serial federal and state prosecutions that he has faced, ranging from Georgia to Manhattan, from Washington to Florida. He has divined a hidden hand presidency in which Biden, whom he routinely dismisses as barely capable of getting out of bed in the morning, let alone tying his shoelaces, is masterminding a grand conspiracy to throttle his presidential run.

It was no accident that his advisers targeted Maryland Republican senatorial candidate Larry Hogan for destruction after he issued an anodyne statement calling upon Americans to respect the rule of law after Trump’s recent trial in Manhattan. That was a no-go zone for Trump and his followers. Trump does not want to uphold the rule of law. He wants to undermine it.

In Normandy, Biden laid out the coming clash between him and Trump over American democracy and the rule of law. He essentially pleaded with America to turn back to the future. But will what worked for Reagan four decades ago work for Biden as well?

About the Author: Jacob Heilbrunn

Jacob Heilbrunn is editor of The National Interest and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. He has written on both foreign and domestic issues for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Reuters, Washington Monthly, and The Weekly Standard. He has also written for German publications such as Cicero, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Der Tagesspiegel. In 2008, his book They Knew They Were Right: the Rise of the Neocons was published by Doubleday. It was named one of the one hundred notable books of the year by The New York Times. He is the author of America Last: The Right’s Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators.