What to Watch for in Trump’s First Overseas Trip

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-  President Trump’s, “World Religion Tour” is underway and he picked the wrong place to get away from the political heat of DC. It’s 110 degrees here!

On a serious note, he’s actually receiving a, “King’s Welcome” (don’t freak out liberals!). There’s no doubt that President Trump is trying not to make any waves overseas. How can I tell? Well, it appears his speech Sunday to Muslim-majority nations will not include the words, “Radical Islamic Terrorism.” It looks like he’s dialing that back over here. 

As he moves onto Israel, he doesn’t want to make any waves there either and that’s probably, most likely the reason he’s not moving the embassy, or at least we don’t expect him to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Because he wants to, as the philosopher John Lennon would say, “give peace a chance,” and he hopes the Palestinians and Israelis can work it out. He may indeed move the embassy to Jerusalem, just not now. The moves in both Saudi Arabia and Israel signal Trump’s desire to work some deals, whether it’s peace in the Middle East or getting a strategic partner on board to help in the fight against ISIS.

What else do we expect on this visit? Quite a few things. First of all, the Trump administration wants to make sure that they get a commitment from these Gulf nations to, in essence, cut off terrorism funding and they believe they are very close to an agreement with many of these countries. 

Remember for President Trump, it’s all about jobs and at this point what’s going to happen is Saudi Arabia is going to spend $100 billion on American-made military equipment. Eventually, they say they will spend $300 billion in the next 10 years on American-made military equipment.

So, expect Trump to come back and tout that he got the Saudis to “buy American.”

So, that’s a look at some of the goals in Saudi Arabia.

Remember to stay tuned as we follow the president to Israel Monday, as we mark the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, the Six-Day War. We will be in Jerusalem on May 23rd, so stay tuned for more updates and don’t forget to check out the CBN docudrama, “In Our Hands,” in theaters for the Fathom event May 23rd. Get your tickets before they sell out.