Throughout his campaign, President Donald Trump made it clear that his number one priority in foreign policy was defeating “radical Islam.” This past week Trump met with leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and China.
The first meeting of the week took place on Monday, April 3 at the White House with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The main objective of this meeting was to reboot the relationship between Egypt and the U.S. that was set aside by the Obama administration, which criticized Egypt’s human rights records. Previous records had shown that el-Sisi had caused thousands of protesters to be jailed and/or killed, which Trump saw as Sisi “taking control of Egypt,” according to USA Today.
Issues with Egypt’s human rights records do not appear to be a concern for Trump. He recently approved the sale of 19 F-16 fighter jets to the Kingdom of Bahrain, despite previous rejection of this purchase by the Obama administration due to human rights concerns.
Another notable action taken by Trump’s administration was the convenient lack of a press conference when the human rights reports were released. The report noted a long list of human rights violation by Egypt, as USA Today noted:
Among them: excessive use of force by state security forces, including impunity for the killing and torture of political opponents; the use of military courts to try civilians in
mass trials, and widespread practices that include female genital mutilation, human trafficking, forced marriage and child abuse.
While Trump has the right idea of attempting to make friends with world leaders that have influences in countries of interest in the Middle East, the Obama administration also had the right idea of showing the world that we, the United States of America, do not condone this behavior against citizens.
The next meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Wednesday, April 5, did not go as planned. Due to the attack on Syria, the plan to focus on the U.S.’s campaign against ISIS turned into a joint press conference to discuss the recent attack. Trump responded to pictures of children and babies suffering from the attack with astonishment, saying that it crosses many lines, according to NPR.
Trump has previously voiced his opinion that the Syrian war simply was not America’s fight. When he decided to retaliate with attacks against Assad, the point that his opinion had changed from the Syrian attack photos was clear. There was so much surprise from this attack and its resulting images that not much else was notably covered at the press conference.
Seemingly the most productive of all of the meetings was with the Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. According to CNN, the point of this meeting was to discuss the U.S. threat of action against Beijing and North Korea if nuclear programs did not cease. (http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/03/politics/trump-foreign-policy/) Another important topic was to be trade.
Previously, Trump used words such as “rape” and “killing” to describe China’s role in the U.S.’s so-called “failing” economy. Surprisingly enough, cordial steps were taken toward this topic. A 100-day plan aimed at improving the trade between the two countries was put into place. During this time period, the threat of trade war are being put off; however, if results are not seen after the 100 days, there is no telling what might happen. The Syrian strike may have overshadowed this meeting, but it ended on great terms. Trump was even invited to visit China later in the year.
Trump’s three meetings with these global leaders could have garnered much more attention if there had not been so much other important news in Syria. While the meeting with Egypt’s leader did not seem to have a good outcome for people with actual standards for human rights and the meeting with Jordan’s leader was too dominated by the Syrian attack to be productive, the meeting with China’s leader was surprisingly positive. Maybe with two wrongs comes a right.