Trump to speak on Islam — but maybe not 'radical Islamic terrorism' — to Muslim leaders
President Trump will address the leaders of 50 majority-Muslim nations Sunday in an "uplifting" but "blunt" speech on Islam and the war on terror. The talk is the keynote event of Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, the first stop of his inaugural international tour as president.
A leaked draft of the speech did not contain the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism," which Trump highlighted throughout his campaign, accusing President Obama and Hillary Clinton of being soft on terror because they would not "state what the problem is or at least say the name."
In an interview to air Sunday, National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster was vague about whether the phrase would appear. "This is the president asking questions, listening, learning, and of course the president will call it whatever he wants to call it," he said. "Whatever we call it, we recognize that these are not religious people and in fact, these enemies of all civilization," McMaster added. "What they want to do is to cloak their criminal behavior under some false idea of a religious war."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Observers are also watching to see if Trump's speech goes off-message to discuss the scandals and allegations plaguing his presidency, as well as whether he takes members of his audience, most notably his Saudi Arabian hosts, to task for human rights abuses.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Political cartoons for November 2Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include the 22nd amendment, homeless camps, and more
-
The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
-
Trump’s White House ballroom: a threat to the republic?Talking Point Trump be far from the first US president to leave his mark on the Executive Mansion, but to critics his remodel is yet more overreach
-
France makes first arrests in Louvre jewels heistSpeed Read Two suspects were arrested in connection with the daytime theft of royal jewels from the museum
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
