Charming and boorish, Trump plays role of a lifetime overseas
Little matters more to Donald Trump, the brander-turnedAmerican President, than imagery. This past week it was time for him to audition for his role: leader of the free world.
In Washington, Trump is mostly seen only when he chooses.
But a nine-day, marathon foreign trip that concluded yesterday in Sicily has offered the first extended — and often unfiltered — look at Trump on the world stage.
Trump was both charming and boorish. He was deferential to the King of Saudi Arabia and Pope Francis, yet aggressively rude to his European colleagues, brushing aside a Balkan Prime Minister to get to his place lining up for a photo shoot at Nato.
Le Monde admonished Trump for “verbal and physical brutality” towards Nato allies and said he “lectured them like children”. He strode around hulkingly. He nervously buttoned and unbuttoned his suit jacket. He sometimes seemed unsure whether to smile or glare so he alternated back and forth. At formal events, Trump did not always know where to go or what to do.
“What is the protocol?” he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they walked down a red carpet at an airport arrival ceremony in Tel Aviv. “Who knows,” Netanyahu replied. “I think they’ll just tell us where to stand.”
Trump was visibly comfortable in environs that evoked his own, like Saudi Arabia’s gilded-andchandeliered palaces, yet appeared out of place in others.
He arrived like a wrecking ball at the new Nato headquarters, a glassand-steel behemoth.
First lady Melania Trump was omnipresent, though largely silent and emotionless. She and her husband were rarely seen exchanging words, and he sometimes walked ahead of her, almost as if she were an ornament.
But the first lady came out of her shell at solo events, handing out Dr Seuss books and colouring with children. She seemed especially moved by her visit to Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital in Rome, where she read a book to and held hands with a boy who was awaiting a heart transplant. A Slovenian-born former model, Melania raised eyebrows strolling the streets of Sicily in a Dolce & Gabbana jacket that reportedly retails for US$51,500.
While critics at home had predicted major gaffes, the President made none. And Trump participated in and contributed to substantive meetings on issues ranging from counter-terrorism and trade to climate change and migration.
In Saudi Arabia, Trump’s call for co-operation in the fight against Isis unquestionably pushed the issue forward, with renewed emphasis on stopping terror financing and blocking militant messaging and recruitment. Trump revitalised Arab leaders, particularly in the Gulf, who felt they had been disrespected and ignored by President Barack Obama.
In Europe, Trump’s badgering remarks on defence spending — during a Nato ceremony memorialising the joint alliance response to the September 2001 terrorist attacks — left a bad taste. There was widespread disappointment at Trump’s failure to use the occasion to reaffirm US commitment to the alliance’s joint defence pact, Article 5.