No wonder President Trump is reportedly “exhausted.” Following yet another difficult week at home fraught with mounting concerns about the circumstances in which he fired FBI Director James Comey, Trump departed, or some might say escaped, to Saudi Arabia, beginning his first overseas trip as president. There Trump began a whirlwind weekend in which he received a welcome fit for a king and delivered a speech to Middle Eastern leaders that was reassuring to foreign policy critics.
When the Trump caravan landed in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, the president was greeted at the airport by Saudi King Salman; but it was Trump’s wife Melania, and daughter, Ivanka, who made headlines when they appeared without wearing headscarves in a country with a strict dress code for women. Following the signing of a $110 billion arms deal, a sword dance and a banquet that evening, Trump complimented the Egyptian president’s shoes and delivered a much anticipated speech on terrorism Sunday.
“There can be no coexistence with this violence. There can be no tolerating it. No accepting it. No executing it. And no ignoring it. 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,” Trump exclaimed at the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. While offering “partnership” to its Middle Eastern allies in the fight against groups like the Islamic State, Trump also blasted Saudi Arabia’s foe Iran for contributing to “so much instability in that region.” Iran held its presidential election a day earlier, in which Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani won a second term by a wide margin.
Trump’s warm embrace of the Saudis this weekend was a stark contrast to the harsh rhetoric he espoused during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he condemned the Clinton Foundation for accepting millions of dollars from a country that suppresses women’s rights and has “people that push gays off business — off buildings.” Trump also concocted a rallying cry out of banning Muslims from entering the U.S. during the campaign, and two travel bans from Muslim-majority countries as president, which were left unaddressed this weekend, at least in public.
Having completed his stay in Saudi Arabia, Trump now travels to Israel. He is expected to meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after it was reported that his adminsitration is having second thoughts about the controversial relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Afterwards Trump will visit the Vatican for an audience with Pope Francis, and will attend a G-7 meeting of Western economic powers and a NATO summit in Brussels.
Another weekend, another missile test from North Korea. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson posited that the regime ruling that country is feeling the “pressure” after the U.S. Navy moved a second aircraft carrier to the Korean Peninsula to take part in training exercises and the United Nations Security Council condemned Pyongyang after its missile launch last week and stressed that it should not conduct any further tests and commit to denuclearization.
Back in the U.S., Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, delivered two commencement addresses. The first was controversy-free, but during the second one at Notre Dame on Sunday, dozens of students walked out in protest as Pence spoke.
In response to a report that the Trump team is looking for a way to invoke an ethics rule that could restrict the ability of former FBI Director Robert Mueller, now special counsel, to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday that Democrats will introduce a measure this week for the Justice Department to grant a waiver “to fend off attempts to thwart the federal investigation.”
Among the leaks last week damaging Trump’s image were details of his recent meeting with Russian officials at the White House, including that he called Comey a “nut job” amid “great pressure” from the FBI’s investigation into Russia and divulged classified information.
There have already been calls for impeachment, but the Trump administration is taking refuge in admissions, including from Democrats, that no evidence of a conspiracy between his campaign and Russia has been found. “There are all kinds of rumors around,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in an interview highlighted by the White House. “There are newspaper stories, but that’s not necessarily evidence.”
Feinstein, the top Democrat in the Judicary Committee, already has prepared a line of questioning for Comey, who agreed to testify in a public setting before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
On the House side, Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, wants the White House leaker jailed. The ranking member in his committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., suggested that a “few people” in the White House have “problems with the law” and offered Chaffetz a draft subpoena by which he could compel the White House to provide documents related to former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who was fired for misleading the Trump about his communications with a Russian envoy.
Meanwhile Billy Bush, whose career as a TV host ended seven months ago following the surfacing of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which he and Trump can be heard having a lewd conversation about women, revealed late Sunday that his is poised for a comeback.
