I assume he is responding to salutes by American veterans or ex-servicemen off to the side out of sight.
None of the other men in that line would salute as a matter of protocol (the Prince of Wales would return a salute only if in uniform and wearing his hat, the Prime Ministers and President Sarkozy would not salute). Somewhere along the line it has become protocol for US Presidents to return salutes no matter what they are wearing, so President Obama is probably acting correctly according to protocol. The others are also doing so according to the protocols of their own countries.
“I assume he is responding to salutes by American veterans or ex-servicemen off to the side out of sight.”
I did not think about that possibility. Brain cells have fallen asleep.
I assume he is responding to salutes by American veterans or ex-servicemen off to the side out of sight. None of the other men in that line would salute as a matter of protocol (the Prince of Wales would return a salute only if in uniform and wearing his hat, the Prime Ministers and President Sarkozy would not salute). Somewhere along the line it has become protocol for US Presidents to return salutes no matter what they are wearing, so President Obama is probably acting correctly according to protocol. The others are also doing so according to the protocols of their own countries.
Ronald Reagan did it. And after his presidency Colin Powell went to visit Reagan, and Reagan asked if he should stop saluting military people he met. Powell wrote that he considered the fact that if he said, "Yes," and anyone in the military ever found out that he had said that, his name would be mud in the military forever after, and told him to continue.