Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Eli Two billowing American and French flags now hang from the West Wing-facing facade of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building signaling this week's visit by French President EMMANUEL MACRON. The massive tent that will house Thursday's state dinner is being set up on the lower part of the South Lawn near the fountain. President JOE BIDEN was briefed on final plans in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon. And marching bands, flag bearers, East Wing staff and presidential aides on both sides will take part in a full dress rehearsal Tuesday of everything from an arrival ceremony to the leaders' various movements around the White House campus. Preparations for Biden's first state dinner began months ago, not long after the event and dates were locked in. And they have required an extreme degree of cooperation and coordination across numerous executive branch agencies: the State Department and the Office of Protocol, the West and East Wings, the National Security Council, the White House Visitors, Social and military offices and Secret Service. CARLOS ELIZONDO , the White House social secretary, has spearheaded planning for the visit from within the White House, while working closely with others, including Chief of Protocol RUFUS GIFFORD. "For the hundreds, if not thousands of people who are involved in this visit, it's been an extraordinary undertaking, but also really special and really exciting for everyone involved,” said Gifford, who is the primary liaison in Washington for French Ambassador PHILLIPE ETIENNE. Gifford will also be Macron’s escort from the moment he lands Tuesday evening at Joint Base Andrews until his departure Friday. "This is the highest form of diplomacy that you can engage in, a state visit. And we want to ensure that our guests, in this case President and Mrs. Macron, have a wonderful experience," said Gifford, who has been in hourly contact with Etienne and the French protocol chief tending to final changes to guest lists and program schedules. That will begin as soon as Macron and his wife, BRIGITTE, arrive at the Blair House, the historic residence across the street from the White House where the couple will stay. There, the head chef plans to serve a dinner meal based loosely on the traditional American Thanksgiving menu, Gifford said. (We’ve been assured that, unlike us, they’re not thinking of just heating up some week-old leftovers.) The ceremonial guest house, where visiting heads of state have long resided, will also be decorated for the holiday season with five Christmas trees — as will the East Room, where Macron and Biden will hold a press conference Thursday. The master schedule, another White House official said, is a precise run-of-show detailed down to the minute. It shows, the official added, that the president and first lady, hosting on the world stage for the first time, are invested in the success of the state visit. At Monday’s press briefing, NSC spokesperson JOHN KIRBY noted that alliances are the clear central pillar of Biden’s foreign policy and that France is America’s oldest and among its most important allies. The president, Kirby said, “felt that this was exactly the right and the most appropriate country to start with for state visits.” The itinerary will stretch over three days and include a bilateral meeting with Biden and a joint press conference, a formal lunch at the State Department as well as a visit Wednesday to NASA headquarters with Vice President KAMALA HARRIS. But the main event will be Thursday evening's state dinner. As soon as the dinner was announced in late September, the protocol office began researching past state visits to ensure this one would adhere to precedent, officials said. And at the end of October, administration staffers hosted a French delegation at the Blair House. Over two days of meetings, aides from both sides paired off to coordinate everything from ensuring equal access for U.S. and French press to Covid protections, programs for both first ladies and scheduled events and movements. The press will have access to parts of the dinner: Biden’s official toast and the first song by JON BATISTE, the first New Orleans musician to perform at such an event. (Macron is planning to visit New Orleans Friday before returning home.) The dinner, coming nearly halfway through Biden's term, is a sign the pandemic-related concerns that had put such events on pause have largely abated. By comparison, President BARACK OBAMA held six state dinners in his first year alone. Incidentally, President DONALD TRUMP's first dinner was also with Macron. Unlike Obama, who got headliners like BEYONCÉ, JANELLE MONÁE, MUMFORD AND SONS and JOHN LEGEND to perform at his dinners, Trump struggled to recruit top recording artists. When he hosted Macron, the Washington National Opera provided the night's entertainment. While no one we spoke to would leak any names on the guest list (they also did not explicitly rule it out when we asked if Beyoncé was attending), Gifford said the dinner would be a large gathering bringing together “a who's who” of French Americans, lawmakers and big names from the worlds of business and the arts. MESSAGE US — Are you MICHAEL LEACH, chief diversity and inclusion director at the White House? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .
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