In a Monday tweet, while sending his condolences to France, Trump expressed his concern about the fire in the French capital that could lead to the destruction of the more than 800-year-old cathedral, encouraging firefighters to use “flying water tankers” while urging them to “act quickly.”
The French Civil Security agency was quick to respond to Trump's suggestion, saying that dropping water from the air onto the building could collapse the entire structure.
"The weight of the water and the intensity of the drop at low altitude could indeed weaken the structure of Notre-Dame and result in collateral damage to the buildings in the vicinity," the agency tweeted in French and later in English.
The US President also received angry responses from all over Twitter. Users noted that Trump has had zero experience as a firefighter with which to give any advice on the matter.
Others recalled the president’s tweets from autumn 2018 when in response to fires in Finland Trump advised raking the leaves in order to prevent future blazes.
Meanwhile, the fire in one of Paris' most widely recognized landmarks and a UNESCO World Heritage site drew the attention of firefighters from all around the world. One of the most trending threads, which went viral right after Trump’s controversial advice, was a set of tweets written by Gregg Favre, a former firefighter from the St. Louis Fire Department, who explained in detail the difficulties of putting out the fire in the Notre Dame Cathedral.