Thread: President Trump passes his first test on the world stage

President Trump passes his first test on the world stage

By Nile Gardiner
Updated 4:37 AM ET, Sat May 27, 2017

Story highlights

Nile Gardiner: On this first overseas tour, President Trump certainly made an indelible impression
The President reintroduced a more assertive US, Gardiner writes

"Nile Gardiner is the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation and a former aide to Margaret Thatcher. The opinions in this article belong to the author. "

(CNN) President Donald Trump's first presidential foray onto the international stage should be judged as a success. His visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Belgium and Italy were well managed by the White House and effectively advanced some key foreign policy goals for the new administration.

These include rebuilding frayed partnerships in the Middle East and pressuring allies in Europe to invest more in their own defenses; no leader across the Atlantic should be left with any doubt about US expectations of what they need to do to strengthen NATO.

On this first overseas tour, President Trump certainly made an indelible impression. In the Middle East, traditional allies will feel reassured that the United States stands with them, especially in reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions. In Europe, Trump will probably never be loved, but he is increasingly acknowledged as someone who means business in aggressively advancing US interests, which include strengthening the NATO alliance.

In contrast to his predecessor in the White House, President Trump showed no willingness to atone to other world leaders for his country's actions, and seemed determined to project strength and resolve at a time when American leadership is increasingly being challenged. This was not the "leading from behind" approach of the Obama era, but a return to a more traditionally assertive US foreign policy based on clear-cut national interests.

President Trump got off to a strong start in Riyadh. After an exceedingly tough week in Washington, he was received like royalty in the capital city of an important US ally that had at times a strained relationship with the Obama administration.

His speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit calling on the Muslim world to unite in defeating terrorism struck the right tone as the United States works to solidify the anti-ISIS coalition. In Saudi Arabia, the President came across as a statesman, choosing to jettison some of the sharper rhetoric that peppered his campaign speeches in favor of building bridges with Muslim allies.

Mr. Trump was similarly well received in Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a close relationship with the new US president thus far. The last eight years have been an extraordinarily tense time in terms of US-Israeli relations, but there was little sign of division between Trump and Netanyahu, and both leaders expressed a united message in warning against the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.

The European leg of the president's tour, meanwhile, was always going to be tougher than the Middle Eastern one. When President Trump addressed the leaders of the 28-nation NATO alliance in Brussels, he was stepping into the lion's den. Many European leaders have been openly critical of the US President, whose suggestion on the campaign trail that NATO had become "obsolete" had also led to widespread consternation across the Atlantic.

Undoubtedly, his remarks at the NATO headquarters could and should have been stronger, with a robust declaration in support of the Article 5 NATO commitment, support for further NATO expansion, and a clear warning to Vladimir Putin's Russia to keep out of the Baltic states.

But even absent those statements, Donald Trump did successfully hammer home the key message that all 28 members of the alliance must do more to invest in their own defense and contribute more to NATO military missions. Many US officials have expounded on this theme in the past, but until now, no American president had so bluntly made this point directly to the entire alliance.

France's newly elected president, Emmanuel Macron, visibly smirked during Donald Trump's remarks, but the force of his message will not have been lost on the wider European continent-- much of which for the past 70 years has thrived under the security umbrella provided by the United States.

Donald Trump's Brussels speech may not have been pretty, but its forceful impact will likely be felt for many years to come. If European countries do end up investing significantly more in their own defenses in the next decade, the Trump administration's tough love will have reaped dividends.

Overall, the tour was an emphatic rejection of isolationism, and a reassertion of American leadership. That can only be a good thing for the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/26/opinio...diner-opinion/

Nice article. Thank you Nile Gardiner.

Great trip for our President and the United States. He's fixing a bunch of issues that will benefit US from a national security, foreign policy, and economic standpoint.

Can't wait until he meets with Russia and fixes that "frayed" relationship!

The only thing that I am worried about is that he may be falling into the same trap that previous administrations, Republican and Democrat have made over Israel. Once again twisting Israel's arms over Palestinian claims, forcing Israel to treat the Palestinians as anything but an antisemitic terrorist cult is a waste of time. Anyone who can easily identify the source of terrorism here in the US and over in Europe and indeed the rest of the world -- Southeast Asia, China, the Philippines and on and on -- should be able to see that modern Israel has been dealing with the same problem for its whole history.

But Trump is playing things very close to his chest and Israel is up against this every day. A day does not pass in Israel where they are not confronted with Palestinian terrorism in one form or another. The best negotiator is not delusional and it really remains to be seen whether Trump has drunk the Kool-Aid regarding Palestinian Nationalism.

Trump in his tour has placed Israel in its proper place, as a small country in the Middle East of no particular interest or consequence to anyone. The problem with the Middle East is that the passions of Islam and other global antisemitic interests have made it into an international obsession.

Trump has acknowledged early on how tough a peace deal between Israel and Palestinians is going to be, and it's tough for many reasons. But he's willing to give it a try without dictating to them. He wants to broker it not mandate the terms. Trump has also aligned the 55 Arab Muslim Nations in a way that provides economic incentives for both areas, with many of these nations ready to fund new commitments to end terrorism in the region as well as lift the boycott against Israel.

All we can do is hope it all works out for the better. It may not be perfect, few things rarely are, but hopefully better for everyone, more peace, security and business activity for both Israel and Palestinians which helps bring all these benefits to the entire region.

Fix that and move on to new relationship with Russia, then close in on fixing Iran situation. Trump is lining it all up in a smart fashion seems to me, isolating Iran with a great deal of pressure from many countries.