Trump’s First Foreign Trip A Show of “American Strength”

He described those as issues of Trump’s impetuous character and governance style.

“The president’s only been in office for a certain period of time, and they respect that”, Cohn said. But after hosting Stoltenberg at the White House in April, Trump changed his mind.

The President’s legion of online antagonists were euphoric in their disdain, too, joyously sharing meme’s of Trump’s real and imagined stumbles, his alleged curtsy and orb fondling in Saudi Arabia, his odd block-capital note in the visitors’ book at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Israel, his white-knuckled handshake with the new French president, Emmanuel Macron.

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) speaks beside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the start of the NATO summit at their new headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017.

Trump had done a lot to antagonise his European allies over the preceding days.

The Europeans had hoped Trump’s visit might mark a reset in transatlantic relations roiled by his election – that the USA president would be persuaded to see the world through their eyes more.

Trump indeed urged Muslim leaders to “honestly (confront) the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds” and redouble their counterterrorism efforts, calling on them to carry their “part of the burden” of fighting terrorism. Only five of NATO’s 28 members meet the target: Britain, Estonia, debt-laden Greece, Poland and the United States, which spends more on defense than all the other allies combined.

Trump’s “catastrophic” trip would certainly please one leader – Putin. In Riyadh, he received a lavish, gold-plated welcome: His image was projected across the facade of the luxury hotel where he stayed, horses flanked his motorcade as it moved to one of the king’s desert palaces and an extravagant celebration was held in his honor, complete with a traditional Saudi sword dance.

As he watched footage of Trump’s meeting with Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other G-7 leaders in Sicily while on Bloomberg television, Ian Bremmer, president of the risk consultancy Eurasia Group said he was witnessing “the first ever formal meeting of the G-zero”.

Those calls had mixed results. “We traveled the world to strengthen long-standing alliances and to form a new partnership among nations devoted to the task of eradicating the terrorism that plagues our planet”, Trump said.

During the summit he didn’t mention support for Article 5, which is NATO’s commitment to mutual defense in the event of an attack on a member.

Trump was warmly welcomed in the Middle East, but in Europe he’s faced a far cooler reception.

Mattis also highlighted Russian Federation as a threat in the developing arena of cyberattacks against countries.

Some European leaders believe Trump can still be coaxed away from his controversial campaign positions. But the lack of a public voice on the issue signaled a change in USA policy, which has preserved partnerships while also speaking vocally about the need for human rights reforms.

Even if Donald Trump hasn’t done a lot of public speaking during his big trip overseas, the body language of the president and those around him has spoken volumes.

For diplomats, body language can be especially important., is probably wishing he’d had a better poker face during the president’s Jerusalem stop.

The president tweeted Saturday, “I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!” But Trump has earlier questioned that provision-at least in the case of nations that are behind in their payments-and Europe hoped that he would state his commitment to that key article. No, heads were not bobbing as Trump intoned that he had been “very, very direct” with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance in saying at they “must finally contribute their fair share”.

Trump was lavishly feted in Israel as well, embraced by a prime minister who despised his predecessor and was eager to flatter the new president.

The one, of course, being Trump.

German officials told Süddeutsche Zeitung that Trump and his aides were under the impression America had separate trade deals with each individual European Union country. But from Brussels to Sicily, there were uneasy smiles, awkwardness and no disguising rifts on a range of issues – from trade and immigration to sanctions on Russian Federation and climate change.

Trump is seated between Beji Caid Essebsi, president of Tunisia, and Mahamadou Issoufou, the president of Niger, for his first meeting of the day. “He came here to learn”.

But behind the theatre of it all were some alarming developments, and world leaders have been vocal in their displeasure, news.com.au reports.