Donald Trump has gone abroad. Nine days. Five stops. Strange beds. Anything could happen.
Could
be a win. The bar is so stupendously low these days that if Trump makes
it clear he knows what country he’s in, it’ll be a triumph.
We
will stop now to beat back our sudden fear that our president will not
know what country he’s in. After all, one stop on the trip is Belgium,
which he once referred to as “a beautiful city.”
Trump
is looking for a change of conversation, so we will try not to point
out that while visiting both Saudi Arabia and Israel is a welcome
gesture, Richard Nixon tried the same thing in 1974, and nobody was
distracted.
But the news just keeps on coming. While the president was in the air, we learned
that he told Russian officials visiting the Oval Office that he had
fired F.B.I. Director James Comey because Comey put him under “great
pressure because of Russia.”
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Well, at least it’s an indication that he knows how to talk with foreign dignitaries about topics they’re interested in.
Saudi
Arabia seems like a good choice for a first stop — although if Trump
wants to get away from the “witch hunt,” he ought to know that the Saudi
religious police have a special anti-witchcraft unit. Otherwise, he and
the Saudi leadership have a lot in common, including an affinity for
giving top jobs to their relatives and government decision-making that
features only one gender.
It’s
true that during the campaign Trump suggested the Saudis were somehow
involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, that they “push gays off buildings”
and “kill women and treat women horribly.” On the other hand, he also
told one rally that he got along “great with all of them. They buy
apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed
to dislike them? I like them very much.”
Whatever else you complain about, give the man credit for flexibility.
The
theme of the Arab Islamic part of the presidential trip is “Together We
Prevail.” Then comes Israel, whose slogan might well be “Where Did This
Guy Come From?”
The
Israelis are irritated about Trump’s sudden shift to Arab inclusion,
but they get a ton of military aid from the United States that will
presumably encourage them to be friendly. And to forget about the
president leaking their spy secrets to the Russians, his refusal to
schedule more than 15 minutes at their revered Holocaust museum and his
cancellation of a speech at the historic site at Masada because it
required his riding in a cable car.
His
hosts will try to talk about subjects Trump prefers. The Israeli
leaders remember that when their prime minister was in Washington, the
president responded to a press conference question about anti-Semitism
in America by reminding everyone he had won 306 Electoral College votes.
Peter Baker reported in The Times
that as heads of state were preparing for the big trip, all of them
were being primed to remember to bring up that Electoral College thing a
lot.
Then
it’s off to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis, with whom Trump conducted
a verbal war over wall-building. But that’s all over, and the president
now clearly appreciates Francis as the great moral leader he is. (“I
think he’s got a lot of personality.”)
It’s
unlikely there will be any terrible moments of conflict during the
trip. Trump can be very good at meetings with people he wants to get
along with. He looks serious. He nods. He says “yeah” frequently.
His
mind may be somewhere else entirely — golf, lunch, the witch hunt, that
funny thing he saw on the street. But the nodding continues. When the
meeting is over, the other people at the table often come away very
pleased with themselves, unaware he has already forgotten everything
they said.
The
Vatican talk will probably be about refugees and immigration. It’s
possible Francis will feel they had a real meeting of the minds. The
president will recall that the pope is shorter than he is.
Anyhow,
then comes NATO, and a meeting with allied leaders in Belgium, where
the slogan appears to be “Don’t Let Him Get Bored.” Everyone is on their
toes about keeping remarks very, very short.
The
president is primed to demand that our allies start spending more on
weapons and the military, and not just be “partners who take and take
and take.” I’ll bet it bears fruit. There definitely is something about
him that makes people want to increase their defense budgets.
Trump
has spent his entire political career warning Americans that “the world
is laughing at us.” But now it really, really is. Europe is awash in
stories about the two-to-four-minute limit on remarks during the NATO
discussions. The glee is muted only by remembering that this is now the
most powerful person in the world.
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