Paris, France - Joe Biden headed for France on Tuesday to mark 80 years since the World War II D-Day landings and to paint America as a defender of democracy and international alliances – contrasting himself against election rival Donald Trump.

"We are the world power," the 81-year-old Democrat said in an interview with Time magazine published Tuesday, laying out his vision of continued US leadership in the post-war international order.

Biden's trip comes as he eyes a rematch with his Republican predecessor Donald Trump in November.

"I have a fundamentally different view than Mr. Trump has on a range of things," he said, adding that US security depended on its "alliances around the world."

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"And he, Trump, wanted to just abandon them," added Biden, who has since touched down at Paris Orly airport and was welcomed by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

Previewing Biden's trip, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said World War II "showed the world the value of strong alliances and partnerships," and added that Biden "has made revitalizing our relationships a key priority."

On Sunday, Biden will visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, where hundreds of US Marines who died in the bloody Battle of Belleau Wood during World War I are buried.

Trump called off a visit to the same cemetery in 2018 – officially because of bad weather. But the Atlantic magazine later reported that Trump was mainly concerned his hair would become disheveled in the rain.

Trump was also reported to have told senior staff members: "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers."

Biden will also take part in the international ceremony marking the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, on Omaha Beach in Normandy.

Later in the week, he will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris for a visit featuring a welcome ceremony, military parade, and working dinner, followed by a joint press conference.

The trip will finish with a grand state dinner, after Biden treated Macron in Washington in December 2022.

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The White House said the two leaders would make an announcement on cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region as well as on the energy transition and nuclear energy.

But on Friday, Biden has carved out time for a speech whose real audience is at home in the US.

Biden will speak about "the importance of defending freedom and democracy" at Pointe du Hoc, a promontory overlooking Omaha Beach taken by US Rangers in one of the fiercest battles on D-Day.

Forty years ago, Republican President Ronald Reagan used the same location to proclaim that democracy was worth dying for "because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man."

Biden's words in 2024 will clearly be aimed at Trump. The president has repeatedly called his rival a threat to democracy over Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 election results, his support for the January 6, 2021 Capitol rioters, and his repeated hints at unrest if he loses a second election.

"Something snapped in this guy" after 2020, Biden told a fundraiser earlier this week, where he also branded Trump a "convicted felon" after the Republican was found guilty in his criminal hush money trial.