President Trump On The World Stage

With guest host Jessica Yellin.

The president is abroad while political storms brew at home. We’ll look at how President Trump is faring on the world stage.

In a closely watched speech from Saudi Arabia, President Trump earned praise, for avoiding the angry anti-Islam rhetoric of his campaign, while calling on Muslim allies to step up the fight against terrorism. He faces new tests ahead in meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the Pope and NATO officials. And staff says, he's already exhausted. This hour, On Point: on his first foreign trip a measured on message President Trump emerges. -- Jessica Yellin

Michael Crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for POLITICO. (@michaelcrowley)

Shadi Hamid, senior fellow in the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution. Author of "Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World." (@shadihamid)

Michael Wilner, Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for the Jerusalem Post. (@mawilner)

Kristine Berzina, Trans-Atlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, where she focuses on policy analysis to the US-EU relations, NATO and trans-Atlantic security. (@kristineberz)

POLITICO: 5 things to watch on Trump’s foreign trip — "Trump spent much of the 2016 campaign criticizing NATO. Many European leaders were relieved to hear Trump say in an April press conference with Italy’s prime minster that the 28-member military alliance is “no longer obsolete.” But Trump said that in response to what he says is NATO’s new attention to terrorism, which in fact remains a secondary mission for the alliance."

Jerusalem Post: Trump Challenges Arab Leaders On Extremists: 'Drive Them Out’ -- "Delivering his first major foreign policy address since taking office, US President Donald Trump told Arab world leaders gathered in Riyadh on Sunday that he considers Islam a fundamentally peaceful religion, but that extremist elements within it are holding their nations back, and that force must be used to drive out heretics of the faith."

The Atlantic: Trump's Islam Speech And The Blessings Of Low Expectations — "Even the most well-intentioned presidents have struggled to find the right way to talk about Islam. Barack Obama, perhaps more than any other previous president (with the possible exception of Thomas Jefferson), came into office with considerable knowledge of Islam and Muslims. But Obama struggled to take the religious motivations of extremists seriously, dismissing ISIS as a bunch of “thugs” and “fanatics.” When he addressed the role of Islam more directly, he had a tendency to lapse into patronizing clichés, exhorting Muslims to become more “modern.” There was also the odd spectacle of Obama’s top diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry, making theological pronouncements and deeming ISIS to be “apostates.”