Tump.45 and Whole Gang (including his double barreled feminine family barrage) are off on his first Presidential foreign adventure. It is to be a painfully long nine day slog in five countries: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Vatican (Rime), Belgium, and Italy (Sicily).
Here is the published basic travel schedule released today.
- Day 1 — Saturday, May 20 — Riyadh
- Day 2 — Sunday, May 21 — Riyadh
- Day 3—Monday, May 22—Jerusalem
- Day 4—Tuesday, May 23—Bethlehem and Jerusalem
- Day 5—Wednesday, May 24—Rome
- Day 6—Thursday, May 25—Brussels
- Day 7—Friday, May 26—Sicily
- Day 8—Saturday, May 27—Sicily
An earlier story about Trump.45’s intended mission and purposes for this trip included the following ecumenical goal, expressed through HR McMaster, Trump.45’s National Security Advisor.
Trump leaves for Saudi Arabia on Friday afternoon and will make stops next week in Israel, Belgium and Italy. The trip was billed as a chance to visit places sacred to three of the world’s major religions while creating face time with Arab, Israeli and European leaders.
The White House laid out three purposes for the trip: reaffirming U.S. leadership globally, building relationships with world leaders and broadcasting “a message of unity to America’s friends and to the faithful of three of the world’s greatest religions,” said national security adviser H.R. McMaster.
“What President Trump is seeking is to unite peoples of all faiths around a common vision of peace, progress and prosperity,” he told reporters.
(Emphasis added)
There is an almost missionary religious tinge to his phrasing.
The World’s three great faiths referred to in this aspirational process are of course: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam,. Trump.45 belongs to the first, daughter Ivanka is a convert to the second, and so far as I can tell none of Trump.45’s core inner circle or trip advisors adheres to the third. Muslims make up roughly 20% of the World’s population, though not in America.
Anyway, Comparative Religion 101 teaches us that each of these faiths has a Holy Day for prayer, thanksgiving, and reflection each week in a regular cycle. Believers are to put aside the routine cares of their secular world activities to honor and celebrate the tenets and moral codes of their particular body of faith.
As nearly every curious 10-year old knows, that special day is Sunday for Christians, Saturday for Jews (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), and Friday for practicing Muslims.
Now, notice Trump.45’s travel schedule for his first official foray outside our Great Country. In line with the expressed spiritual dimension of uniting disparate faiths and belief systems, Trump.45 arrives in the Muslim country of Saudi Arabia on Saturday (not during their Sabbath celebration). He goes to Israel on Monday (not during their Sabbath). So far, so good for honoring religious traditions and sensitivities of the great faiths.
But on Sunday, his own Christian Holy Day, he will be holding bilateral meetings, having lunch with 50 heads of Muslim states, giving two speeches, opening a Global Center, and attending a social media conference as his published schedule for Sunday spells out.
Among the leaders Trump.45 will be hobnobbing with on Sunday are several of the countries Trump.45 has included in his court blocked travel ban for entry into the United States.
From the Raw Story (05/19/17):
Day 2 — Sunday, May 21 — Riyadh
Trump will hold bilateral meetings with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a political and economic alliance that includes including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He’ll also have broader meetings with Gulf state leaders.
He’ll have lunch with leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries and deliver “an inspiring, yet direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and his hopes, the president’s hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam to dominate across the world,” McMaster said Tuesday. “The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners.”
The New York Times reports that 37 heads of state and at least six prime ministers are expected to attend, including President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, President Fuad Masum of Iraq, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan.
Trump will participate in the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, which aims to “fight radicalism and promote moderation,” McMaster said.
The president will also give the keynote address at a social media conference, where Fox News host Bret Baier will also speak.
Beyond the awful optics of his traveling outside of the US to make nice with leaders whose people he wants to exclude from our country, the more pertinent issue from a religious faith perspective is that he intends to perform all these activities on the Christian Holy Day.
Now it should be obvious to anyone paying attention that Trump.45 is an inconsistent and fitful practitioner of his avowed Christian faith and essential moral precepts, but still he claims adherence to a deep abiding faith and many of his most vocal supporters are devout and practicing fundamentalist Christians.
His blatant public disrespect for his Christian Holy Day documented in his official schedule, with no mention of even a quick stop-off for religious observance of his own faith while overseas, is a virtual slap in the face to legions of his fervent supporters.
Even in its watered down fashion so often found today in America, where is the slightest nod to a ‘Day of Rest’ on Sunday.
At the same time Trump.45 is sensitively and properly respecting the faith practices of both other religions, the ones which he is not a part of.
Trump.45 is likely not overmuch concerned with religious symbolism for himself, given his own past history of disinterest and neglect, but he is supposed to have a staff composed only of the “Best and Brightest”, who certainly should be on top of simple issues like this. Trump.45 is plagued yet again by sloppy incompetent staff work. Maybe they are all excessively excited about their first overseas luxury flight on Air Force One, and the valuable prestige points they are scoring with friends, family, and acquaintances for when they return home at the end of next week.
A Brief Coda on Ivanka
Just for the record. Both daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared hold themselves out as devout practicing Orthodox Jews. Ivanka is proud and public about the importance of her devotion to her adopted faith. See her just published new book.
From a Politico story:
In her new book, “Women Who Work,” Ivanka Trump writes about how her family observes the weekly Jewish holiday. “From sundown Friday to Saturday night, my family and I observe the Shabbat,” she wrote. “During this time, we disconnect completely — no emails, no TV, no phone calls, no Internet. We enjoy uninterrupted time together and it’s wonderful.” She added: “It’s enormously important to unplug and devote that time to each other. We enjoy long meals together, we read, we take walks in the city, we nap, and just hang out.”
Travel on the Jewish Sabbath is generally forbidden to believers. This issue is serious enough that a special rabbinical waiver for Ivanka and Jared from appropriate religious authorities was applied for and granted. And not for the first time.
From the same Politico story dated yesterday:
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner will be flying aboard Air Force One to Saudi Arabia with President Donald Trump on Friday, after receiving a rabbinical dispensation to travel on the Jewish Sabbath, according to a White House official.
As practicing Orthodox Jews, Trump’s daughter and son-in-law typically observe the weekly Shabbat holiday, unplugging from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. But they have made exceptions, on a few occasions, for their jobs.
On Inauguration Day, they received the same kind of rabbinical pass to travel by car, an activity that is typically prohibited for observant Jews on the Sabbath. The rules can be broken in life-threatening situations, or if there is a safety concern, according to Jewish law. It was not clear on what grounds the exception was made to accompany the president on his first international trip.
During the 2016 campaign, Kushner also broke Shabbat during the worst crisis to engulf Trump. He huddled with his father-in-law in Trump Tower after the release of the damaging “Access Hollywood” tape in October of 2016 that showed Trump bragging about kissing and groping women without their consent.
What makes this little episode notable is that neither Ivanka nor Jared has any prior significant history in Saudi Arabia politics or business, so their presence is incidental or superfluous at best, and certainly not essential to the American diplomatic goals of the trip. It will make a fine vacation memory, no doubt.
So for Ivanka, hallowed religious practices are fine, when it suits. Otherwise, go for exceptions in order to enjoy the glitz and bennies bestowed by a Big Daddy. Somehow, most people of faith would doubt that Jehovah could care less if Ivanka, a self-professed Orthodox Jew, rides in style to a Muslim country while contravening the Holy Sabbath. Not that Jared had to rush to the side of a philandering adulterer, skewered by his own words on tape during an election.
By the way, shame on the rabbinical authorities who gave such a loosey-goosey dispensation to naked power and privilege. What is their honest religious justification? It appears analogous to the medieval selling of dispensations that triggered the Luther’s Protestant Reformation that Trump.45 professes faith in.
Ivanka is another Trump apple fallen not far from the root stock.
Ivanka is scheduled to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and later take part in Trump.45’s audience with the Pope in Rome, however. This constellation of events looks, sounds, and quacks like a perk right enough. These are most definitely travel goodies of a very high order, gifted by genetic connection and not earned by public service to America. Nearly everyone would like them, few are chosen by random genetic selection.
The Kushners have, perhaps, a more legitimate and defensible role to play during the President’s visit to Israel which starts on Monday, not least for the sake of their extensive business ties. Nevertheless, It is entirely reasonable that both of them could fly to Israel on Sunday to join the President’s entourage early Mondy, and allow them to comply with their proper religious travel restrictions as well as their secular concerns, without special religious favors and exceptions.
Nor is Ivanka needed on this trip along with the Trumpster to perform First Lady Substitute Ceremonial duties, as the actual First Lady, Melania, will be right by Trump.45’s side for the entire nine day run. So there isn’t even any need for a mid-course switch-off of feminine support roles to embellish the Big Dog’s performance.
Lest someone complain that it is more cost effective for all the President’s team to fly together, let’s just point out that Ivanka will only be present for 6-days of the trip, not the entire nine days of travel. In other words, she is already traveling outside the main body orbit next week.
There was no political business need for her to hop a ride on the Big Blue Bird, save privilege and status.
Oh, well. The juicy extras for the family will only add another couple of million (give or take) to the American taxpayers’ bill. You weren’t going to be invited anyway.
Maybe Ivanka can moderate his Great Leader persona so as to not stick his foot in his capacious mouth, when he lectures and hectors 50 Muslim leaders in one room on Sunday, our Holy Day, while instructing them in the proper response to Radical Islamic Terrorism, and how the U.S. will insist the Arab states pay for its destruction, under US general guidance.
Can you say, “Mission Impossible VI (Trump Version)”?
The Raw Story (compete version):
Donald Trump is set to make his first trip abroad in his new role as president of the United States. He departs Friday for an eight-day tour that includes stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy and Belgium.
First Lady Melania Trump will join her husband for the full trip, as will National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Others who will participate include Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Press Secretary Sean Spicer and his deputy Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Here’s what we know about his itinerary:
Day 1 — Saturday, May 20 — Riyadh
Trump will begin his trip with an arrival ceremony in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. He’ll then have coffee with King Salman; attend a royal banquet; hold bilateral meetings with the king, the crown prince, and the deputy crown prince and participate in a signing ceremony for a number of agreements on U.S.-Saudi security and economic cooperation. That evening, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will attend an official dinner with the Saudi royal family.
Day 2 — Sunday, May 21 — Riyadh
Trump will hold bilateral meetings with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a political and economic alliance that includes including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He’ll also have broader meetings with Gulf state leaders.
He’ll have lunch with leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries and deliver “an inspiring, yet direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and his hopes, the president’s hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam to dominate across the world,” McMaster said Tuesday. “The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners.”
The New York Times reports that 37 heads of state and at least six prime ministers are expected to attend, including President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, President Fuad Masum of Iraq, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan.
Trump will participate in the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, which aims to “fight radicalism and promote moderation,” McMaster said.
The president will also give the keynote address at a social media conference, where Fox News host Bret Baier will also speak.
Day 3—Monday, May 22—Jerusalem
Trump will meet Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem and visit Yad Vashem, to lay a wreath at the Holocaust remembrance center. It doesn’t seem as though he’ll have time to do much else at the museum, a 45-acre complex with multiple buildings and memorials, since his advance team reportedly allotted only 15 minutes for the visit. He will then speak at the Israel Museum to “celebrate the unique history of Israel and of the Jewish people, while reaffirming America’s unshakeable bond with our closest ally in the Middle East,” McMaster said. The venue for this speech was chosen as an alternate location after the president canceled his visit to Masada, an ancient fortress that overlooks the Dead Sea.
Trump will also meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the evening, the leaders and their wives will have a private dinner.
Day 4—Tuesday, May 23—Bethlehem and Jerusalem
Trump will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, “where he will convey his administration’s eagerness to facilitate an agreement that ends the conflict, and he will urge Palestinian leaders to take steps that will help lead to peace,” McMaster said. He’ll head back to Jerusalem to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and buried, and say a prayer at the Western Wall, the remains of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.
Day 5—Wednesday, May 24—Rome
Trump will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican. “He looks forward to celebrating the rich contributions of Catholics… and to discussing a range of issues of mutual concern,” McMaster said. While at the Vatican, he’ll also meet with the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and tour St. Peter’s Basilica. Later that afternoon, he’ll meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
Day 6—Thursday, May 25—Brussels
Trump will meet with Belgium’s King Philippe and Prime Minister Charles Michel, among others. At the European Union headquarters, he’ll meet with the European Union and the European Council presidents. Trump will have a working lunch with Emmanuel Macron, who was elected president of France less than two weeks ago.
That afternoon, Trump will speak at the unveiling of a NATO memorial in front of pieces of the Berlin Wall and the World Trade Center. “He will reaffirm America’s commitment to the alliance and repeat his insistence that for the good of the alliance, all members must share responsibility and share burden,” McMaster said.
Trump and Mattis will participate in a NATO leaders meeting and dinner and then travel to Sicily.
Day 7—Friday, May 26—Sicily
Trump will attend the G7 summit in Sicily. The Group of 7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and “serves as a forum for highly industrialized democracies to coordinate economic, security, and energy policy,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations. He’ll meet there with leaders including Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. “In the formal meetings, he will press America’s economic agenda and call for greater security cooperation,” McMaster said.
That night, he will go to a concert of the La Scala Philharmonic and attend a leaders dinner hosted by the president of Italy.
Day 8—Saturday, May 27—Sicily
Trump will speak to American and Allied servicemen and their families. “He will thank them for the sacrifices they all make to keep us safe, and he’ll also recap the highlights and accomplishments of the trip,” McMaster said. The president will then depart Italy for his return trip to Washington, D.C.
Trump.45’s Muslim Tightrope:
Trump’s complicated pitch to the Muslim World
Wanna get away? Well, President Trump is doing exactly that later this afternoon, when he departs on a weeklong trip to the Middle East and Europe. His first stop is Saudi Arabia, where he delivers a speech on Sunday to the Muslim World — and it’s a complicated pitch given his rhetoric, both during the presidential campaign and even after. That rhetoric includes:
“I think Islam hates us”: That’s what he told CNN in March 2016. “There’s tremendous hatred there,” he added.
“A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”: That was the Muslim ban Trump introduced in December 2015. That call was later revised to nations “compromised by terrorism” — and eventually to the controversial travel ban he unveiled in his first days as president. Strikingly, Trump’s original December 2015 Mulism-ban statement has been scrubbed from his campaign’s website. But guess what the URL address still reads: “donald-J. trump-statement-on-preventing-muslim-immigration.”
“So we should have kept [Iraq’s] oil… Maybe you’ll have another chance”: That’s what Trump told CIA employees during his second day as president, repeating what he said during the campaign. “Four years ago, I said bomb the oil and take the oil. And if we did that, [ISIS] wouldn’t have the wealth they have right now,” he said during a February 2016 debate.
“Take out” the families of ISIS members: “The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families,” Trump told Fox in December 2015.
“We have to maybe check … the mosques”: “We have to maybe check, respectfully, the mosques and we have to check other places because this is a problem that, if we don’t solve it, it’s going to eat our country alive,” he said in June 2016.
Still, Saudis to give Trump a royal welcome
That rhetoric aside, the leaders of Saudi Arabia are expected to give Trump a warm embrace. “The Saudis with whom I have spoken are prepared to roll out of the red carpet for the visiting U.S. president, and he will eat up their hospitality,” the Atlantic’s Andrew Exum writes. The New York Times has more: “Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies were so angry over President Barack Obama’s Middle East policies that they appeared prepared to dismiss Mr. Trump’s remarks as campaign rhetoric, and to see in him a possibility of resetting relations.” Oh, and there’s also this: “$110 Billion Weapons Sale to Saudis Has Jared Kushner’s Personal Touch.”
And here:
And again:
During his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, President Trump is planning to give a lunchtime talk on counterterrorism and Islam to Muslim heads of state. What could go wrong?
Plenty. According to the president’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, “The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners.” That’s a great idea in theory—most counterterrorism professionals advise building a common front with Muslim countries against jihadists. But for a president who campaigned on the dangers of Islam and proposed a ban on Muslim immigrants, the talk is fraught with political peril: Repeat campaign talking points, and he will infuriate the Muslim heads of state and the citizens they represent. Praise Islam effusively, and he will frustrate the people who elected him.
The speech is being drafted by White House aide Stephen Miller, who helped craft the clumsy language of the first travel ban and views the fight against jihadism as a religious war. But Miller will have to subordinate his own views to those of his mercurial boss, who could deliver a sloppy wet kiss of a talk as easily as a rhetorical slap in the face. For Miller and anyone else taking on the impossible job of crafting this talk, here are some do’s and don’ts to help the president deliver a forgettable talk, which has the best chance of reinforcing America’s partnership with Muslim nations against their common jihadist foes:
DO’S
Do pray that this talk doesn’t happen. The president is not known for nuance, which is what a speech like this requires to escape the potential wrath of his multiple audiences. As someone who occasionally commits the academic’s sin of too much nuance, I wouldn’t volunteer for this mission at a community college in Peoria, much less in Riyadh. But the president doesn’t need to deliver this speech to win over other Muslim leaders. If they are present at the conference in Saudi Arabia, they have already determined that the domestic political price they might pay by cozying up to Trump is offset by the geopolitical benefits of playing nice with the most powerful nation on Earth.
It’s not too late to cancel the talk. The president’s team has already canceled a proposed address at Masada, where Israeli soldiers used to pledge loyalty to the state on the ancient site where Jewish zealots killed themselves rather than surrender to the Romans. The optics weren’t great for a president trying to revive the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. The optics of high-fiving the Saudis in Riyadh for their mixed record of countering the religious underpinnings of Salafi-jihadism aren’t much better.
Do peek at Obama’s Cairo speech. President Obama delivered a speech to the Muslim world just months into his presidency, like Trump plans to do. And he grappled with many of the same issues—jihadism, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Iran and nuclear proliferation, authoritarianism, and religious freedom. Although American conservatives dislike Obama’s speech because of the president’s lofty goals and his demand for Israel to freeze settlements, there’s an awful lot that Trump’s speechwriter can learn about how to respectfully call for social change in conservative Muslim countries.
Do share a draft of the speech with some actual Muslims. If the president must talk about the religion of 20 percent of the world’s inhabitants, his speechwriters should consult some of those inhabitants to make sure the speech doesn’t include any howlers. There are scores of Muslim patriots serving in the Trump administration, especially in in the military and national security agencies, who would be delighted to offer their advice. The president doesn’t have to heed it but at least his speech won’t be full of basic errors.
Do acknowledge that Islam is an American religion. Muslims have lived in the United States since the 17th century and maybe before. Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson may have disliked Islam but they often adduced it as a touchstone to test the strength of a state’s religious freedom laws. If Muslims could practice their faith, the argument went, then everyone’s religious freedoms were protected.
Do call on Muslim states to end blasphemy laws and to stop promoting religious intolerance. Some Muslim countries outlaw religious speech they don’t like as blasphemy, which can carry the death penalty. A few Muslim states like Saudi Arabia also promote religious hatred abroad. The president can call on his audience to put an end to both without publicly singling out any particular country or getting into the vagaries of whether halting them is in keeping with Islam or not.
DON’T’S
Don’t offer opinions on what Islam is and isn’t. President Trump’s predecessors often called Islam a religion of peace. Candidate Trump often associated Islam with war. The truth is that Islam, like other ancient faiths, contains multitudes. Hippy-dippy Sufis in the West jostle for center stage with dour ultraconservatives in the East. Indonesian Islam bears little resemblance to Moroccan Islam. Ancient Islam is refracted through the prism of modern Islam. President Trump can criticize trends in the Islamic world today without equating them with the entire religion.
Don’t talk about “moderate Muslims.” To many Muslims, it sounds condescendingly like “our kind of Muslim.” Moderation is also in the eye of the beholder—what many conservative Muslims consider moderate would be extreme by American standards. President Trump would be better off using “mainstream” instead, a less subjective term that can be substantiated through polling. Talk about mainstream Muslim values that most humans agree on, like not killing civilians.
Don’t promote Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Islamic world. By virtue of controlling the two holiest cities in Islam, Saudi Arabia is certainly a leader in the Islamic world. But President Trump should resist the temptation to flatter his hosts by promoting them as the leader of the Islamic world. Many Muslims dislike the Saudi government’s ultraconservative brand of Islam and resent the kingdom’s efforts to export it abroad. And depending on the issue, other Muslim countries have exercised more leadership in promoting tolerance and peace. Even where Saudi Arabia has been most helpful to the United States—energy stability and counterterrorism—it’s been a mixed bag.
***
A few days after President Trump’s proposed address, Ramadan begins. It’s a time of fasting and self-reflection for most Muslims. But it is also a time of peril. During last year’s Ramadan, ISIS carried out multiple terror attacks across the globe in a show of strength to offset its losses in Syria and Iraq. It may attempt to do the same this year, which means we will need to turn to our Muslim partners for help in protecting ourselves. Here’s hoping that President Trump makes it easy for them in the court of Muslim public opinion by delivering a lunchtime speech that will be forgotten by the time coffee is served.
The New York Times Dishes on Ivanka:
WASHINGTON — Ivanka Trump will travel with the president to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Italy on his upcoming foreign trip, a White House official said.
A senior adviser to President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump will be present for six days of the nine-day trip, which begins Friday, the official said. She’ll join her father for some events, but will also hold some of her own, the official said.
The official said that in Saudi Arabia, Ivanka Trump will take part in a roundtable discussion with Saudi women about women’s economic issues. Ivanka Trump wants to hear about the challenges women in the country face and the progress they have made, the official said.
The person was not authorized to be quoted by name discussing the details of the plan in advance of the formal announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
In Israel, Ivanka Trump — who converted to Judaism when she married husband Jared Kushner — will visit the Western Wall with the president. And in Rome, she will take part in a discussion about human trafficking with the Community of Sant’Egidio, an aid group with ties to the Vatican. She will also take part in a meeting with the Pope.
The meetings build on some issues the first daughter has already worked on at the White House. She has held meetings on women’s economic empowerment and human trafficking.
This is the president’s first international trip, but Ivanka Trump made a brief trip to Germany in April to appear on a panel at a conference dedicated to helping women in business.
The foreign trip comes amid tumult for the White House after a series of damaging reports, culminating with the appointment of a special counsel to probe ties between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign and associates. Many White House aides have been hoping the trip will provide an opportunity for the young administration to refocus.
Ivanka Trump stepped away from running her clothing brand and from an executive role at the Trump Organization before she joined her father’s administration as an unpaid adviser. She still owns the brand, which could be boosted by her high-profile stint at the White House.
Ivanka’s write-up is much longer than that for First Lady Melania. Go figure. Maybe it’s because she speaks English better than her stepmother. Or she has a better “Best and Brightest” staff member. Or maybe because Priebus is an incompetent bumbler.
Balderdash, you say? Read it for yourself.
Melania Trump will engage with foreign women and children and deliver remarks to U.S. military families and personnel when she joins President Donald Trump on his first trip abroad as commander in chief, the first lady’s office announced Thursday.
The Trumps will leave Washington on Friday for a trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Rome, Brussels and Sicily. And while Melania Trump will accompany her husband at some events, the White House said the first lady will also participate in many of her own, including attending spousal programs at the NATO and G-7 summits in Brussels and Sicily, respectively, and speaking to U.S. military personnel and families in Italy.
“I am very excited for the upcoming trip,” Melania Trump said in a statement. “This will not just be an opportunity to support my husband as he works on important matters of national security and foreign relations, it will also be my honor to visit and speak with women and children from different countries, with different perspectives.”
Or maybe the White House is just running out of the “Best and Brightest” candidates.