Trump’s First Foreign Tour

Last night at the Arab Islamic American Summit, the course of action the United States has followed for the past eight years in the War on Terror has taken a drastic turn. During his speech to 50 Muslim nations who were present at the summit, he declared that we will no longer try to teach the middle east a New Way of life, and instead we will “offer [a] partnership, based on shared interests and values.”

This change in strategy was not the only change that is to be noted from his speech. What is possibly more shocking is the way he spoke about and addressed the issue at hand.

Throughout the entirety of his campaign, he addressed the issue as ‘Radical Islamist Terrorism’ which many people always had an issue with. Before leaving for his trip, many of his close advisors suggested that he instead use ‘Islamist Extremism’ since it does not attack the religion and those who are peaceful followers of the word of Islam.

Following this trend of reducing tensions, Trump also has back tracked on the statement “I think Islam hates us,” which he made during his campaign. Instead of viewing them in this negative life, many of the messages he preached were less general than the one mentioned above and instead are focused in on the extremists. Back tracking on more of the rhetoric he made during the campaign, he stated that not the United States nor the world is at war with all of the religion, but we are at war with, “barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people, all in the name of religion.”

Saudi Arabian and American flags flying together. Featured Image via Flickr.

In addition to not declaring war on the entirety of Islam, he called to the past to show that the three big faiths, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, can and have all lived in peace in the past. These three religions have their birthplace in the Middle East, so for much of world history, they have lived in harmony. IT was not until the extremist views of some Islamists took hold, did this region become as dangerous as it is today. Trump has called for the Middle Eastern nations to drive these radicals out.

As his time in office continues, it is becoming evident that he is much more moderate than many believed him to be, and also much more personal than any believed him to be.

Although the host of the Summit King Salman of Saudi Arabia did admonish the United States for their current Visa policy, the majority of his speech praised Trump for the strides he has taken to create peace between the two regions. This came just a few days after the two nations agreed on a $110 billion arms deal, which is very lucrative for both nations. It provides Saudi Arabia the materials they need to conduct their own war on terror, while it provides the United States with money, jobs, and connections to this very important region.

The deal struck with the Saudi Arabians is just one of many that they hope to create in the coming months, with future meetings with the heads of state of both Egypt and Qatar hopefully yielding a similar result.

Not only do these ties with the United States aide their efforts in the War on Terror, but so does the Gulf Cooperation Council. This organization composed of the six gulf states in the Middle East created a center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia which works with the United States to fight extremism. This organization fights extremism not with soldiers, but by monitoring the money flow of the nations involved to prevent the funding of terrorist groups from these nations which used to be notorious for their corruption.

Trump will be overseas for another five days, and in those days, he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as the Pope among other meetings with NATO and other international organizations. Through these meetings, he hopes to create a global coalition among the three major faiths in the world that will together combat Islamist extremism.