‘He’s doing a great job’: Trump embraces Egypt’s strongman
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump welcomed Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, to the White House on Tuesday and bestowed on his ally what he most eagerly sought: a ringing endorsement of his strongman rule.
El-Sissi, 64, a former general who took power in a military coup in 2013, is seeking to amend the Egyptian Constitution to allow him to run for two more six-year terms, which would keep him in power until 2034.
When Trump was asked about the amendments, he professed not to know anything about them, but declared: “I can just tell you he’s doing a great job. Great president.”
El-Sissi’s visit came on the same day that another key ally of Trump’s in the Middle East, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, was facing voters in a tight election. In the weeks leading up to that vote, the president tried to shore up Netanyahu’s fortunes with a series of gestures, chief among them U.S. recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
It also came as Trump called a third ally, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who has been under a cloud since reports that he ordered the killing in October of a Saudi dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed discussed Saudi Arabia’s “critical role” in stabilizing the region, the campaign to isolate Iran and “the importance of human right issues,” according to a White House statement.
For Egypt’s leader, Trump offered only the trappings of an Oval Office welcome, though one with flashing cameras and looming boom mics. Back home, where el-Sissi has methodically stifled dissent and tightened his grip on power, that could prove more than enough validation.
“The single and only reason for President Sissi to visit the White House right now is to obtain a strong endorsement from President Trump to stay in power,” said Amy Hawthorne, deputy director of research at the Project on Middle East Democracy.
Before their session, Trump said the two men would discuss trade and counterterrorism. He said nothing publicly about Egypt’s human rights record, which was always checkered but has deteriorated under el-Sissi, who has brutally suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood and turned Egypt into a society in which a person can be arrested over an objectionable Facebook post. Trump’s daughter Ivanka also met with el-Sissi to discuss the empowerment of women.