I had a friend complain about this. It would have probably cost around $5 million for him to go- and people would then complain it was just some photo-op and that he was being irresponsible and superficial.
Yes likely they would, but here's the thing, while I doubt this will have much effect on French-American relationships; the French is not going to be angry at him, but it's one of those small things, which slowly erode national relationships, if such things happens too often, it's like when minor American allies meet the president and he use the standard buzzwords for minor allies, it's not something which make anybody angry, but it gives the wrong impression.
