Part of his success has been due to Trump’s ability and willingness to listen to leaders who host him when he travels. During the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, not only did the king of Saudi Arabia meet Trump at the airport, but he was at his side any time Trump was in public during his stay. The amount of time in which they had to compare notes and discuss Iran, terrorism, and Israel was significant and historic.
At the State Department, Trump wanted a major leader as Secretary of State, and as the CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson seemed the central casting vision of a global leader. He had routinely made billion-dollar deals, and he was comfortable and experienced in dealing with world leaders. In the first six months of the new administration, Tillerson played an important role in calming fears until people around the world got to know Trump.
When the president made his controversial decision to move the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, he had been talking with every major American ally in the region for weeks. No one was surprised, and their approving reactions have been muted by the elite media.
Trump's growth as a foreign policy and national security leader is something which deserves major acknowledgment in every year-end review of 2017. Donald Trump is not the president his critics feared. He is adroitly learning the trade of presidential leadership at a rapid pace.
P.S. On Wednesday, I wrote about how dishonest the media has been about Trump’s achievements. On Thursday, I found more confirmation. The elite media has written endlessly about the president’s supposedly low approval ratings, yet a recent Rasmussen poll shows that Trump’s approval rating was nearly identical to Obama’s on December 28, 2009.
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Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich. His latest book is "Understanding Trump."
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