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21 tweets that may come back to haunt Trump on his big trip abroad
President Trump embarked on his first foreign trip Friday, with an ambitious plan to make five stops in four countries over eight days. In the process, he's going to come face-to-face with some of his frequent Twitter targets.
Awwwkward.
Trump will sit down with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, a country he's told to "fight their own wars" and "pay up"; give a speech about his "hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam," after tweeting about "Islamic radicals" since 2011; talk with the president of Palestine, which he claimed in 2011 was "run by the terrorist group Hamas"; and meet with the leaders of NATO, an alliance he's repeatedly called "obsolete."
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Without the distance of the internet — and the Atlantic Ocean — between him and his Twitter insultees, here are some tweets Trump might just wish he hadn't hit send on.
First stop: Trump will spend Saturday in Saudi Arabia, where he'll have coffee with King Salman, go to a royal banquet, and attend an official dinner with the Saudi royal family with first lady Melania Trump on his arm. Hopefully Melania won't add to our list of "enemies" — we have "enuf."
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Trump has a jam-packed Sunday, which will begin with meetings with Gulf state leaders. After that, ABC News reports he'll eat lunch with the leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries, give a speech about his "hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam," and participate in the opening of a center focused on fighting radicalism. Trump will wrap up his day by holding a Twitter forum with the youth of Saudi Arabia. What could go wrong?
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Trump will spend most of his day Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and will thus have a chance to live up to his tweeted promise to single-handedly save Israel. He will also give a speech at the Israel Museum, his second choice in location after he found out he couldn't land his helicopter at the original location, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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On Tuesday, Trump will meet with Palestinian President President Mahmoud Abbas. He will then visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Western Wall, a recent topic of contention after an American diplomat angered Israel by describing the holy site as being located in the West Bank, which is partly controlled by the Palestinian government.
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Trump will have a chance Wednesday to lay out his full response in person to Pope Francis' criticism of his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, which the pope suggested "is not Christian." Perhaps America's president can also mention his complaints about the pope "standing at the checkout counter." Aside from meeting with the pope at the Vatican and touring St. Peter's Cathedral, Trump will meet the president of Italy.
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That "response," by the way, begins like this:
In response to the Pope:If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. [Trump]
It does not get more diplomatic from there.
Trump will spend most of his day Thursday with an "obsolete" group: NATO. He will meet with King Philippe of Belgium and Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium, the host country of the NATO alliance. He will also pay a visit to the European Union headquarters and sit down for a working lunch with Emmanuel Macron, France's new president.
Hopefully none of this comes up.
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Trump will go to the G7 Summit in Sicily on Friday. He will also spend more time with the leaders of Italy when he attends a dinner hosted by Italy's president. He will thus likely have to "think about Italy."
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Trump's final moments abroad will be spent "recapping highlights and accomplishments of the trip" to "American and Allied servicemen and their families," ABC News reports. A very "humble" activity indeed.
