New message: Trump plans shift in speech to Muslims in Saudi Arabia.
Planned text invites Islamic nations to join fight against terrorism
riyadh, saudi arabia » President Donald Trump, whose demonization of Muslims was a trademark of his nationalist campaign, arrives here Saturday hoping the Arab world will listen to a new message.
Embarking on his first overseas trip as president, Trump plans to do a rhetorical pirouette with a speech Sunday in the birthplace of Islam preaching religious tolerance and inviting Muslims to join the United States in the fight against global terrorism.
Never mind that as a candidate Trump proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States, or that he warned of a “Trojan horse” filled with refugees slaughtering innocent Americans, or that he proclaimed, “Islam hates us.”
The Saudis are preparing to welcome President Trump like a conquering king when he steps off Air Force One for his first stop of a high-stakes, marathon tour through the Middle East and Europe.
The capstone of Trump’s 48 hours in Riyadh will be a speech he delivers to the leaders of about 50 Muslim countries at a summit here Sunday afternoon. Trump’s advisers have previewed the address as a clarion call for the Islamic world to partner against evil.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster described it as “an inspiring, yet direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and the president’s hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam to dominate across the world.”
“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,” McMaster said.
Trump’s apparent about-face on Islam is only the latest example of him reversing his campaign position or rhetorical tone since
being elected president.
“He has changed his position on lots of matters . . . so there’s no particular reason he can’t say whatever he wants to say,” said Eliot Abrams, a former national security official in the George W. Bush administration. “This is more delicate because it’s a religion you’re talking about.”
Trump’s speech is being written by Stephen Miller, the White House senior policy adviser who rose to prominence in the early days of Trump’s presidency as the author and public face of the travel ban prohibiting people from seven (later restricted to six) majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States.
Miller, who traveled with Trump on the campaign trail and penned many of his speeches, has advocated a nationalist ideology that seeks to limit immigration to people who share what he considers to be American values.
Miller’s writings as a student in high school and college emphasized the threat of radical Islamic terrorism. He led a “Terrorism Awareness Project” at Duke Uni- versity, warned of “Islamofascism” and argued that there was a “holy war being waged against us.”
Trump’s harsh campaign rhetoric appears to have set the bar extremely low in the minds of many in the Middle East.
“No one is going into this thinking that Trump is good on Islam. We’re all going into it with the opposite idea,” said Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“Those low expectations might work in Trump’s favor because as long as he takes care to avoid saying something terribly offensive, it might be seen as neutral or even positive.”