Here are some excerpts of President Trump’s visit to Riyadh from Saudi Arabia’s state publication, Arab News.
Not only did last night’s speech silence most critics — in this region at least — but it made it very clear that Trump will do what he thinks is right, no matter how harshly he is made to look like he is contradicting himself back home.
What matters to this part of the world is that we feared a president who would seek to divide us, but got one who last night talked about unity and how standing together will ensure we do not fail. We feared a president we were led to believe hates our values and culture, but we got one who sipped our coffee, joined us in sword dancing and told us last night that the US is not here to impose its way of life, but to offer us a helping hand if we choose to take it.
We thought that when Trump said “America First,” he meant we would be neglected and left to our misery. But it is his predecessor Barack Obama who did that when he opted to lecture and profess instead of adhering to his own red line when Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his own people.
Trump and Muslim leaders — the work begins now
Perhaps more astonishing is that at the center of this event stands US President Donald Trump, who over the course of last year, through his words and actions, came to be seen as the anti-Muslim election candidate. Who would have believed that his first overseas trip as president would be to the land of Islam’s holiest sites, addressing Muslim leaders about the need for unity and common cause?
Never has it been truer that power brings responsibility. Trump has come to realize that many of the foremost US priorities depend on the Muslim world: Fighting terrorism, containing Iran, enhancing regional stability and encouraging trade on terms favorable to everyone. As a businessman, he has an instinct for where his and US interests lie, so his first presidential travel brought him to Riyadh.
New era of US-Arab partnership inaugurated by Trump
Just as remarkable has been the genuine and heartfelt grassroots response in Saudi Arabia to Trump and “brand America.” The cultural intersection between America and Arabia was beautifully broadcast as Saudis gathered for Harley Davidson motorcycle rallies and country music concerts, cheering when the American anthem played in the stadium. Trump and his Cabinet partaking in the traditional ardha dance along with the king is a sight that will be imprinted in the annals of US history for generations to come.
The fact that Trump made Riyadh his first stop abroad as president speaks volumes. A major impetus for this decision seems to have been the March visit to Washington by Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Insiders viewed the trip as a success.
The deputy crown prince discussed not just enhancing counterterrorism and defense cooperation with the US, but significantly increasing Saudi investment in the country and paving the way for more American companies to do business in the Kingdom.
If there ever was a clear break from former President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy — which almost exclusively invested in the Iran nuclear deal and viewed Saudi Arabia with cordial yet cold detachment — this was it.
The significance of Trump’s visit
There is undoubtedly a positive message being sent when a US president chooses Saudi Arabia, the land of the Two Holy Mosques, as his first foreign destination. This positivity, shown by Donald Trump, deserves our sincere gratitude for choosing to endorse the moderate Islamic world.
Moderates in the Kingdom and worldwide have always wanted a serious partner to help reclaim the narrative from extremists, and a clear distinction between those who believe Islam is against terror and those who use it to justify terror. Some people with twisted minds have used our religion to create confusion and obscure its real message, which is peace for humanity.
This positive message from the US is an indication of the weight and prominence that Saudi Arabia is privileged to enjoy in the Islamic world. This is why I, as head of the Muslim World League and a proud Saudi citizen, salute Trump for this courageous and meaningful stance.
This visit will have a positive impact in that it is a slap in the face of those who want to sow the seeds of division and extremism. It is very important for the US to stand on the right side of history as we deal with the scourge of terrorism. It is infinitesimally more important for, and incumbent upon, the US to stand with moderate states.
Trump’s visit comes at a time of need to support efforts and emphasize common values between the US and the Islamic world. Our enemies, whose lifelong aim has been to create fitna (mischief), want nothing more than to drive a wedge between us. We must not allow them to.
I would like to reassure President Trump and the American people that there is absolutely no confusion in our ranks as Muslims that it is our bounden responsibility to stand up to terrorism, especially when we see it using our name. Also, we should all not lose sight of the fact that this terrible war has to be waged first with ideology rather than with military weapons.
I also take this opportunity to reassure everyone reading this that it is our duty as Muslims to respect the laws and constitutions of non-Muslim countries where we live. At the same time, we would like to praise the outstanding achievements of American Muslims who have proven to be ideal citizens and successful professionals in various fields, while also being devout and proud Muslims.
With such a positive attitude, and so long as he is eager to serve justice, we welcome President Trump’s initiatives with open arms and pray that our cooperation makes the relationship between Muslims and America great again.
Without question, the left will now pivot to neo-nationalists now — fomenting strife between Saudi Arabia and the United States — only because it’s politically expedient to do so. Truth is, they’re just racist against brown people.
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“the left will now pivot to neo-nationalists now — fomenting strife between Saudi Arabia and the United States”
Nope.
While that may be an initial impulse of some, they will very quickly be brought in line. Saudi princes and the Israeli right wing have a common perceived foe in Iran and the Israelis are unlikely to want information outlets in the US to promote a US/Saudi divide – – so the divide will not happen.
is David Clarke sitting in for you? Jeez how about a footnote. Kidding before the moron comments. That was an incredibly awful read from whatever source.
Indeed, “The fact that Trump made Riyadh his first stop abroad as president speaks volumes.” — What happened to Trump’s “radical Islamic terror” ? I guess the Saudi beheaders are now “moderate and peaceful muslims”
Alliances with Saudis are only a problem to Republicans when Democrats do them. When Trump does them, and Ivanka gets them to contribute to her Foundation, it’s A OK. If Clinton did that, Republicans would scream and shout about it for years on end and call her a criminal.
Trump and the Republicans are about 2 things, as Bill Maher says: 1) Giving tax cuts to people who don’t need them, and 2) bashing Democrats, no matter what they do– even when they do the same things that Republicans do.
Democrats deserve bashing, since their policies are dreadful and more or less represent immorality. The left do not adhere to any traditional family and moral code, which makes then easy prey for anyone trying to point out what’s wrong with society today.
For the most part, neo liberalism is a mental disorder. We can discuss the details if you like. I think it’s worth noting that any sect of people who are literally hell bent on seeing society upended by irrational rules and changes is a sect worth voting out of office.
This is the reason why democrats have suffered such horrendous defeats since 2010. While you might ‘feel good’ that Trump is receiving lots of negative press, remember that it means little for democratic representation in our government. The people voted you out for a reason. You still don’t get it.
Yes, the reasons were voter ID laws and other voter suppression, gerrymandering, Comey revealing HIllary;s investigation but not Trump’s, Right Wing lies, and Russian lies.
What do you mean “The left do not adhere to any traditional family and moral code?”– I thought you were an atheist. Why would all members of any political party be the same religion or have identical moral codes?
And what’s the deal about the traditional family? Most Dems have traditional families– and also are fine with gay people marrying. So that supposed to be a bad thing?
What do you mean by “literally hell bent on seeing society upended by irrational rules and changes.” Oh, wait you must mean the 10 or 12 extraordinarily politically correct liberals at a few expensive colleges– people that Fox and Breitbart search constantly to try to locate so they can rave against them.. These people are not at all similar to your average Democrat– any more than Naziis are similar to your average Republican.
The people voted us out because they didn’t realize Trump was lying to them. He is now doing just about everything he criticized Hillary and Obama for doing– plus a lot of much more problematic things too.
Trump didn’t really disapprove of what they were doing. He was just doing Democrat bashing because that’s what Republican hypocrites do.
Regarding moral codes:
“We corrupt in order to control”
– Giuseppe Mazzini
( corrupt = pervert, make sick )
True to form, Trump used to bash Hillary for touching the orb, and now he touches it himself.
https://twitter.com/InternetHippo/status/866413317518176257/photo/1
He does just about everything that Hillary did, some of which he said he was going to lock her up for– plus numerous things much worse than any of that.
Hillary got almost 3 million more votes than Trump did. Yet most idiots here think that no one could possibly be a Democrat unless they are paid to be one. Ridiculous.
Hillary lost the election because she was, by far, the worst Presidential candidate since Mondale.
Plus, people are sick and tired of democrat lies and false promises. Nothing changed under Obama. It only got appreciably worse for middle class America. Blame congress all you want, but he has both house and senate and did nothing. Leadership starts from the top and Barry was an absurd failure with his wars, attack on middle class via high taxes, regulations, failed healthcare strategy.
The point here is Hillary had a lot moving against her. People viewed her as Obama 2.0 and that was unacceptable.
Do not bother citing popular count margins, since the rules of the election call for electoral votes. If it was a popular vote contest, Trump would’ve stayed in Texas all month and racked up more votes there and in the south.
Trump’s overall strategy would have been vastly different had the popular vote was in play.
Obama did not have a Democrat super majority for long, which is what he would have needed to get done the things he wanted to get done. Also, there are the Blue Dog Democrats who are just Republican Lite and also stood in Obama’s way..
The way we could have gotten things done for the middle class would have been to elect the most progressive Congress & president possible– and then keep demonstrating and pushing them further to the Left.
That doesn’t work with Trump because he never responds to the people, nor does he keep his promises.
Obama did accomplish a lot of things.
https://www.vox.com/2015/6/26/8849925/obama-obamacare-history-presidents
Two of the three “successes” are obamacare and foreign policy. You don’t even hear his strongest supporters claiming his foreign policy was a success. You have just posted the equivalent of a Breitbart article which we can agree is evidence of nothing. You could literally flip your excuses for his ineptitude and apply them to Trump, if he didn’t have those pesky conservatives in his party imagine how much he’d get done. If Republican’s lose their majority in the midterms Trump will be neutered the same as Obama was. If Obama had doubled down on the economy and saved Obamacare for later they would have maintained control, everything else is an excuse and winners don’t make excuses.
The dude has a pathological need to be liked by those surrounding him and an incredible immunity to shame and blatant contradiction. If he actually believed what he said then great.. but who can believe anything the guy says for more than a minute. He’ll be calling all Muslims terrorists in his next NewsMax interview.
Name a President who wasn’t a liar. For the love of Christ, Obama and Clinton lied about what they ate for supper.
Trump lies like them all, but in a less slimy way. He just comes off like a child, whereas Hillary and Obama the devil.
Neither Hillary nor Obama is the Devil. Breitbart, Fox, Limbaugh etc. are lying to you. Trump isn’t worthy to kiss their feet.
Trump lies more than he tells the truth, and then lies about lying and calls media “fake news” if they report the truth, which is certainly not true of Hillary or of Obama.
Trump lied 68% of the time in checked statements.
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/
Obama 26%
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/barack-obama/
Hillary 26%
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/hillary-clinton/
I know, you don’t believe fact checking sites, unless conspiracy theory sites tell you to trust them.
Trump lives in your mind rent free (see “The Art Of The Deal”)
On the other hand, Barry was one of those forgettable types, never saying or doing anything bold.
Bot
Leftie boiler room psy-ops fluff. repeat. repeat. tilt.
Trump certainly has demonstrated he’s a serial liar. But I’m talking about a deep-seated need to feel adulation. The Russians figured this out quickly and the Saudis jumped at the chance to mesmerize with him shiny coins. Trump has no self-awareness to alert him that he has been played. He actually believes the shit these guys are peddling. You nailed it.. emotionally he’s a child.
Not sure how you lump Obama and Clinton together. Obama was pretty much a straight shooter while Clinton oozed.
Sinc the democrats have been losing elections since 2010, you blaming Trump is fake news. America hates progressive liberalism. They want freedom. Democrats are the antithesis of freedom.
I will say this once.
I never ever ever read Breibart and have maybe sourced them 1 time over past decade. I never ever listen to Limbaugh or watch Fox News. Unlike you, I don’t have strings attached to me. See?
I don’t followe Spiers or David Brock on Twitter and do not try to belong to any political party. I hate all of them, just the democrats more. The fact that you continue to spew the same garbage here Day in and day out only serves to utterly humiliate you and it exposes your pseudo intellectualism.
You’re a smart woman Frog, without question. But you live in an echo chamber and tend to believe what your party leaders tell you.
Live and love and try not to believe the luciferians who are running America.
“….You’re a smart woman Frog, without question…”
======================================
Me thinks that Frog is long-winded stupid.
Headline: “Journalists drink too much, are bad at managing emotions, and operate at a lower level than average, according to a new study”
http://www.taraswart.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Report-Study-into-the-mental-resilience-of-journalists-Dr-Tara-Swart.pdf
My comment- Sample size of 40, with 21 participants completing the entire program. Report presents a lot of data points for such a small sample. More importantly, I didn’t see mention of a control group of the general population.
I like the comment “less than five percent of the journalists…” One person of of a sample size of 40? Really?
Give me a break. My specialty is not research. Yet I can tear this report apart half-asleep after one cup of…coffee.
All you grunting primates are missing the story …especially you Frog, please stop with the Dem v Repub stuff, that just plays into the hands of the uniparty distractors. Is division on non-issues really what you are about? Are you a shill?
The guy who commented here yesterday that: ‘the only difference between O and Trump was that the light shone through Obama’s ear’ was closest to the mark. Trump did exactly what I knew he would do: He droned on about how Iran (the enemy of the Saudi royalty and the Israeli expansionists is evil. He even complemented pussy Saudi pilots who inaccurately drop bombs on clueless Yemeni peasants from a safe height before returning to Saudi to get their Bentleys as a reward for their heroism.
The Iranian regime sucks ..as, by our standards, do most governments on this planet. But how does driving Iran, Russia, and China into a trade/military alliance serve our interest? It doesn’t.
Next, in Israel, we’ll hear more tin-eared nonsense from Trump; once again reflecting what his next host wants to hear. Happily for him, Americans are so clueless, he does not have to act in our interests.
In Swamp news… Trump shills only please..
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/334502-trump-moves-to-block-ethics-office-inquiry-into-ex-lobbyists-working