Great photos of Trump’s meetings with world leaders are being taken and his staff is letting the pictures tell the story. For example, Trump met with Pope Francis at The Vatican last week, and the two worked together to spread a message of peace.
Many are saying that Trump’s best moment so far was his speech in Saudi Arabia. He boldly asked both Arab and Muslim leaders to step up to the plate to fight terrorism, a battle he described as “good versus evil”. Trump also made it abundantly clear that the United States is absolutely not waging war against Islam, and he even described Islam as “one of the world’s great faiths.” All of this was in stark contrast to the “Islamaphobic” comments on the campaign trail. “This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects or different civilizations,” Trump said. “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it.” Trump distinguished good, faithful Muslims from the “Islamist” ideology, who he described as the “footsoldiers of evil”.
“Drive them out,” Trump said. “Drive out the terrorists. Drive out the extremists. Drive them out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land and drive them out of this Earth.”
Trump made the speech during an Arab/Islamic/American summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Trump stated he was not in the Middle East to lecture, but he also advised the 55 attending countries to decide on their own future and not wait for Americans to intervene. He made a strong statement that countries with Muslim majorities must take the lead in eradicating the extremists.
Trump continued by acknowledging that Muslims themselves are the largest majority of victims of terrorism. The speech was designed to in effect push the reset button on his relationship with the 1.6 billion Muslims around the world.
“We can only overcome this evil if the forces of good are united and strong and if everyone in this room does their fair share and fulfills their part of the burden,” Trump said.
