On Sunday, President Trump toured Saudi Arabia's new Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology. The center was set up to counteract the messaging of groups like the Islamic State and al Qaeda, "because we know these groups can only be defeated if we defeat their ideology," Mohammed al-Issa, secretary general of the Muslim World League, said Saturday. Trump walked in with Saudi King Salman, and an announcer pointed out some of the features of the new center: 350 male technicians in the main room, monitoring 100 TV channels in 11 different languages, and women working separately upstairs.
"It was quite the show," said Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times, in the press pool report. Trump and the Saudi king "touched down together on the closest globe, setting off a dramatic flourish to the music and lighting up the room brighter," giving it "the feel of a hybrid 24 CTU operations floor and television game-show set":
The photo of King Salman, Trump, and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi touching the globe together, lighted by the orb, was made for Twitter, which mixed the obvious Illuminati jokes with some deep Lord of the Rings knowledge:
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There were also some more topical quips, given the social media focus of the new center:
There are also lots of side-by-side photos with various villains, aliens, and wizards circled about glowing objects. But in the end, all politics is local. Peter Weber
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