Well, it’s now official and announced. Later this month Precedent Trump will be making his first foreign trip as President. For those of us at home here in the US, it’s going to be kind of like watching your child go off for their first day at school. You hope they do well, but secretly you worry that they’ll fart in the middle of the kindergarten reading circle.
This is actually Trump’s second foray outside of our borders, although it’s his first sleepover. You might remember he popped over the border to Mexico City for a quick photo op and lesson in humiliation on wall etiquette with the President of Mexico a while back. Traditionally, a US President breaks the travel lag ice by making a quick overnight trip up to Canada, to meet with the Prime Minister. This is like your first bike with training wheels, it’s hard to fall off with such an easy crowd. Then again, most Presidents don’t have temper tantrums about wood and diary subsidies north of the border.
But Trump is going for the gusto right off of the bat. He’s going to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Italy before pootling over to Brussels for the NATO summit, and Sicily for the G-7 summit. This trip is shaping up to be just a little more difficult even than heading up to Ottawa to argue about bovine lactation rates, and the value therein.
The funny thing is how the administration is already trying to spin this trip, and the agenda right out of the blocks. They are trying to put a strong, anti terrorism angle into the trip. According to an ARTICLE on CNN.com’
According to Trump's aides, the trip is designed as a symbolic show of resolve to top US allies, whom the Trump administration hopes will renew their efforts to combat radicalism and intolerance around the world. (italics mine)
A “symbolic show”? From His Lowness? Who are they trying to kid, everything this guy does is a symbolic show, only it’s more like a show produced by Ed Wood. Let’s just take a quick look at the meat and potatoes of the “foreign policy” side of this trip to see what the benefits are.
Saudi Arabia — At first glance, this would seem like a natural pairing because they feel the same way about women that he does after all, Saudi Arabia has been such a major ally in going all in on kicking ISIS ass. In reality, this will be a tough stop for Trump since Google shows that there is not one five star golf course in Saudi Arabia, so the duffer in Chief may as well leave the sticks at home. However, Trump is trying to pimp an arms deal for the Saudi’s, so walking around the King, lifting the hem of his dishdasha from scraping on the ground should be a good world image for our foreign policy.
Israel — This could be an intriguing part of the trip. Trump loves Bibi Netanyahu, he’s shaken his hand and everything. But since he’s his own man, Trump really wishes Bibi would stop building all those pesky settlements that keep clogging up Middle East peace, and he’s dragging his heels on moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, no matter what Whitey Pence says. But Trump did just meet with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and came away thinking that peace in the region shouldn’t be that hard. Netanyahu can easily reinforce this image, telling Trump that peace in the region is simple, all he has to do is to imprison or banish to the desert all of those troublemaking Palestinians. What could go wrong?
Rome — I admit, this part confuses me. This trip is supposed to be a symbolic gesture to up support for fighting terrorism. The last time I checked, there were no Italians in the coalition against ISIS, and certainly no Swiss guards. But hey, the Pope loves a good brouhaha just like everybody else, right? But word on the street is that The Orange Julius has cadged an actual audience with His Holiness, Pope Francis. Thank God the Pope is such a fan. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall for that meeting;
Pope: My friend, if you do not change, I fear that you are going to hell.
Trump: No problem Pope, I already did. I go to Bedminster now, Florida is getting too hot and humid.
At least on the face of it, it appears that they have gone to some lengths to schedule this trip to destinations that minimize the opportunity for Trump’s ignorance to start WW III via tweet. In all honesty, with Trump’s lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues, I don’t see much to be gained politically by this trip, But it will be nice to have him out from under foot for a few days, and it should be fun to see how he adapts to life without bacon cheeseburgers for a while.