Besieged by controversy at home, U.S. President Donald Trump is under
pressure to stick to the script and avoid fresh flare-ups when he
embarks this week on his first foreign trip, a nine-day trek to the
Middle East and Europe.
White House officials and Republicans close to the administration say
Trump, who campaigned on an “America First” slogan, wants to
demonstrate leadership abroad on his visit with Arab leaders in Saudi
Arabia, Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Israel and the West Bank, the
pope at the Vatican, NATO leaders in Brussels and G7 counterparts in
Sicily.
Trump faces fierce criticism over his sharing of sensitive national
security information with Russian officials and his firing last week of
FBI Director James Comey. Allegations that he previously asked Comey to
end an investigation into his former national security adviser drew a
new round of attacks on Tuesday.
A Republican strategist close to the White House said Trump needed a
strong trip to help put the past tumultuous 10 days behind him.
“If the White House is looking for this international trip to turn
the page, then it really needs to come off well without any balls
dropped or serious mistakes,” said the strategist, who requested
anonymity.
“This is their time to shine, to show Americans and the world that the White House isn’t becoming a circus of errors.”
Airing his frustrations on Twitter, Trump has lashed out at leaks to
the news media from officials inside his administration. Confidants say a
staff shake-up is possible, although major changes are unlikely before
Trump’s foreign trip.
His political woes will add to Trump’s challenges as he tries to bolster ties abroad.
“This trip combines so many different things and actors that the
question is going to be what’s the message that he wants to communicate
when he’s out there,” said Lanhee Chen, who advised Republican Mitt
Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012 and Marco Rubio’s in 2016.
‘DON’T THINK HE UNDERSTANDS IT’
Some doubt whether Trump, a businessman-turned politician who never
held elective office before becoming president in January, is ready for a
smooth presidential debut abroad.
One Republican official, who requested anonymity in order to speak
freely, said after meeting Trump recently he did not think the
president had a firm enough grasp on the nuances of the long-running
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I don’t think he understands it,” said the official, adding that
Trump needed more detailed briefings before leaving on Friday. “I think
it’s a very difficult challenge and I hope he’s going to talk to a lot
of smart people.”
White House advisers insisted Trump was up to speed on the Middle
East, having already hosted Arab, Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the
White House.
“His way of doing diplomacy, which really contrasts with President
Obama’s approach, is to … prioritize the personal relationship,” said
Michael Singh, a foreign policy adviser to former Republican President
George W. Bush.
To prepare for his trip, Trump has been meeting with briefers
including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim
Mattis, White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster, deputy
national security adviser Dina Powell and senior adviser and son-in-law
Jared Kushner.
Conversations with some officials who have briefed Trump and others
who are aware of how he absorbs information portray a president with a
short attention span.
He likes single-page memos and visual aids like maps, charts, graphs and photos.
National Security Council officials have strategically included
Trump’s name in “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading
if he’s mentioned,” according to one source, who relayed conversations
he had with NSC officials.
Trump likes to look at a map of the country involved when he learns about a topic.
“He likes to visualize things,” said a senior administration
official. “The guy’s a builder. He has spent his whole life looking at
architectural renderings and floor plans.”
PREDECESSORS’ GAFFES
Although Trump has a string of golf resorts around the world that he
has visited, the trip could take him out of his comfort zone. He
generally prefers his own bed to hotel rooms. During the 2016
presidential campaign, he often flew home after a day of campaigning
rather than staying in hotels overnight.
Presidential rhetoric and gaffes abroad have caused problems for some of Trump’s predecessors.
Bush drew fire after his first meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, in Slovenia in June 2001, when he said he had looked the
former KGB chief in the eye and “I was able to get a sense of his
soul.” The comment was seen as naive.
Even body language is watched carefully. Democratic President Barack
Obama was criticized for bowing to Japanese Emperor Akihito in a visit
to Japan in November 2009.
One Gulf Arab official said Trump’s decision to make Saudi Arabia,
the birthplace of Islam, the first stop on his trip would send a message
that America did not see Islam as an enemy.
The trip could be a chance for the president to counter critics
who accuse him of being anti-Muslim because of the order he issued, now
blocked by U.S. courts, temporarily banning entry into the United States
by citizens of several Muslim-majority countries.
But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that
if Trump, who is prone to speaking off-the-cuff, ended up undercutting
his own message, it could be damaging.
“It can backfire, I mean it can seriously backfire,” the official said.
Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to Bush, said that since the trip would be Trump’s first overseas, the stakes were higher.
“The meaning and importance of his first trip abroad will be
exaggerated, but it gives him a chance to get bipartisan accolades, or a
chance to fail badly and have the failure exaggerated,” Fleischer said.
