By DEXTER DUGGAN
Donald Trump stepped into land-mine land seeking a future where buried but boiling animosities would be disarmed.
On his first foreign trip as president, Trump purposefully traveled a peace crescent from Saudi Arabia through Israel to the Vatican in late May, seeking to unite against modern terrorism the three major ancient faiths all recognizing the rise of their religions just east of the Mediterranean Sea.
The tousle-haired Trump who, left-wing media babble, hates Muslims, carried himself with executive bearing among Arab and other Muslim-majority nations’ leaders at a regional summit in Riyadh, urging their unity in the effort.
“This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations. This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it,” the Voice of America service quoted him in a May 21 report.
James Asher, an Arizona student of Islam, told The Wanderer on May 24, “I think Trump is demonstrating very well that Muslims really respect power and resolve — for one thing, Trump, in the Muslim belief, would not be powerful and resolute if Allah didn’t want him that way.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi enthused upon sitting down with Trump in Saudi Arabia, “Let me say that you have a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible.” This brought a pleased laugh from Trump, who chuckled, “I agree” even though he modestly waved off the compliment.
However, this was another avenue where Trump appeared eager to exercise his can-do attitude learned as a top business executive, working with other high-powered executives, not as a squabbling, ward-heeler politician.
Trump’s presence on the world stage reportedly was welcomed by Mideast leaders who thought he brought a spirit of resolution after the instability and weakness conveyed by the Obama administration.
Barack Obama, however, had been steely with determination to bring about some bad results, such as strengthening the crazy, nuclear-hungry regime in Iran, to the northeast of Saudi Arabia, as well as undermining the U.S.-friendly, long-tenured Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, finally driven from power in 2011.
Mubarak’s departure left Egypt’s future tottering. It had been much the same regarding the U.S.-tamed Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi, who had remained an irritant but had been put in his place by President Ronald Reagan ordering limited bombing against his regime in April 1986.
Qadhafi finally was ousted and killed in 2011, nurturing chaos in his country, with Obama foreign-policy fingerprints left behind.
It’s not a simple matter successfully to uproot some dictators and expect democracy suddenly to flower in the ruins. Pope Francis declared last year, “As a Libyan said recently, ‘We used to have one Qadhafi, now we have 50’.”
Meanwhile, many Arab chiefs gathering in Riyadh shared Trump’s aversion to a strengthened Iran built up with Obama’s vitamin pills.
Egypt’s Sisi, who was among the first national leaders to phone his congratulations to Trump last November after his presidential victory, had helped stabilize his ancient land of the pyramids after replacing its threatening Muslim Brotherhood government in 2013 that had succeeded Mubarak.
Then-President Obama wasn’t pleased Sisi de-radicalized Egypt’s leadership. Sisi became unwelcome at the White House while Obama endured in office, but was welcomed by new President Trump.
Need it be said Sisi is a Muslim Arab who has no problem recognizing common humanity with Trump, even though dominant left-wing media have their own oppositional script alleging racism, bigotry, backwardness, and bad breath among all Trump’s works.
Then it was off to Israel, where Trump was welcomed warmly by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, happy to see a friend from the White House instead of the Democratic Party predecessor who was prickly about having to endure Israel.
USA Today posted on May 22, “The visit is part of a carefully constructed theme of Trump’s first foreign trip as president. By visiting countries that are the spiritual homes of Islam, Judaism, and Catholic Christianity, Trump is seeking unity as he dives head-first into some of the most intractable conflicts in the world.”
CNBC posted on May 22, “In an address just after Air Force One landed in Tel Aviv, Israel, Trump described a ‘rare opportunity to bring security and stability and peace to this region and to its people.’ He expressed his wish to ‘reaffirm the unbreakable bond between the United States and the State of Israel’.”
Despite everything being said these days against foreign involvement in U.S. elections, Obama had strategized unsuccessfully to have Netanyahu defeated as prime minister in Israel’s 2015 election and be replaced by a more liberal foe.
The Times of Israel was among media outlets having reported Obama’s underhanded plans.
That newspaper reported last July 12, “The U.S. government supported a group that tried to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . . . to the tune of nearly $350,000 . . . , a Senate inquiry published Tuesday found, though it cleared the State Department of any wrongdoing.
“The bipartisan probe found no illegal activity in funding the OneVoice group, which became the V15 campaign to oust Netanyahu, though its report chided the State Department for having failed to prevent state funds being used, albeit legally and indirectly, to influence an allied country’s internal political process,” The Times of Israel said, adding:
“. . . V15 spent considerable efforts trying to convince Israeli voters that Netanyahu had to be replaced by a candidate for the center-left. Netanyahu’s Likud party and other right-wing groups derided the group at the time for using ‘foreign funding’ to try to unseat him.”
National talk-radio conservative host Mark Levin traveled to Israel to conduct his program during Trump’s visit and interviewed leading Israeli figures, including veteran diplomat Dore Gold.
Gold told Levin on May 22 that if there hadn’t been recurring mass slaughters of Jews through the centuries, it’s estimated there would be as many Jews alive today as Chinese.
Both Saudi Arabia and Israel expressed pride that the new U.S. president made it his priority to set foot in their countries on his first official foreign trip.
The Mideast is considered the location of the legendary Tower of Babel, possibly somewhere in Babylon, Iraq, where ancient people’s pride resulted in their being scattered over the Earth by the hand of God.
But multibillionaire businessman Trump, who can fly around the Earth in a huge government jet that probably isn’t as luxurious as his privately owned aircraft, brought a message of modesty and cooperation to the Mideast.
The Voice of America service said Trump also told the regional summit in Riyadh:
“America is a sovereign nation and our first priority is always the safety and security of our citizens. We are not here to lecture — we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership — based on shared interests and values — to pursue a better future for us all.
“Every time a terrorist murders an innocent person, and falsely invokes the name of God, it should be an insult to every person of faith,” he said.
Ironically, while Trump was on his trip, an apparent Islamic-extremist bomber attacked a pop concert in Manchester, England, filled with young people, leaving 22 dead and about 60 reportedly injured.
The UK Guardian quoted Trump saying in Israel: “We stand in absolute solidarity with the people of the United Kingdom. So many young beautiful, innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by evil losers in life.”
Striking what might be considered a characteristic Trump note about winners and losers, the president said, “I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. They would think that’s a great name. I will call them, from now on, losers, because that’s what they are. They are losers. And we will have more of them. But they are losers, just remember that,” the Guardian quoted him, adding:
“This wicked ideology must be obliterated — and I mean completely obliterated — and the innocent life must be protected. All civilized nations must join together to protect human life and the sacred right our citizens to live in safety and in peace.”
Then Trump touched down for his third stop, another ancient center of bloodshed and the battle for civilization, Italy, and on to the Vatican.
Rocco Palmo’s Whispers in the Loggia blog reminded readers on May 24 that the president travels in a massive cavalcade, with his 70-car motorcade rolling up to the Vatican’s San Damaso courtyard.
EWTN journalist Raymond Arroyo told listeners to conservative Laura Ingraham’s national radio program on May 24 that Pope Francis “didn’t seem particularly thrilled to have the president there.”
Earlier in the program, which Arroyo hosted in Ingraham’s absence, the EWTN journalist said the word he got from a Vatican contact was, “I think we’re seeing happy Donald and grumpy Pope.”
Arroyo noted that Francis’ venture into a topic like environmentalism is “beyond his competence” as a religious leader, and that Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency — a left-wing advocacy organization under that president — had helped write the encyclical Laudato Si.
Vatican And White
House Statements
The Whispers in the Loggia blog said Francis gifted Trump with a copy of that encyclical, as well as the controversial Amoris Laetitia and also Evangelii Gaudium.
“While Papa Bergoglio appeared unusually somber or apprehensive as he emerged to welcome the beaming president upon his arrival,” Palmo’s blog said, “Francis returned to his smiling, animated form after the private discussion, seeming especially charmed by First Lady Melania Trump.”
The blog noted a difference in emphasis between statements issued by the Vatican and the White House after the papal meeting, with the Vatican including this:
“During the cordial discussions, satisfaction was expressed for the good existing bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America, as well as the joint commitment in favor of life, and freedom of worship and conscience.”
Meanwhile, the White House mentioned combatting terrorism and said:
“The president affirmed that the United States and the Holy See share many fundamental values and seek to engage globally to promote human rights, combat human suffering, and protect religious freedom.”
The sight of the Pope blessing a rosary for Mrs. Trump excited some attention. The British-based DailyMail.com posted on May 24 that her spokeswoman said Melania Trump is Catholic.
“It’s unclear when Mrs. Trump became a Catholic,” the news site said. “The president is a lifelong Presbyterian, and they were married in a Florida Episcopal church.
“Growing up as the daughter of a Communist Party member in rural Slovenia, her family maintained the outward appearances of being atheists, according to people in her childhood village of Sevnica who spoke to DailyMail.com in late 2015,” the site said, and it was unclear when she became Catholic.
The story recalled that she had opened a rally for her husband in February in Florida with the Lord’s Prayer, surprising an enthusiastic crowd.
A president can’t forget domestic politics for too long, though. The evening of May 24, the Washington Examiner said the White House announced that Trump would hold a rally June 1 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
From Jerusalem and the Vatican to the DoubleTree by Hilton Cedar Rapids Convention Complex in a few days. It’s both a big world and one big global neighborhood.
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