As President Donald Trump visits the Middle East on his first major foreign trip of his second term, there is one country he isn’t scheduled to visit that might come as a surprise: Israel. With planned presidential stops in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and possibly Turkey, it seems that Israel, one of the few places in the world where Trump is seen favorably, is not on the schedule. The reason? Trump has figured out that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a key obstacle to his foreign policy agenda in the region.
Aside from Trump’s somewhat impromptu visit to the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis, this is his first trip abroad, and it has been planned for months. From Trump’s perspective, the Middle East is high on his foreign affairs agenda for several reasons. Aside from the usual U.S. interests at play there, he sees the Middle East as the place where he had the most historic success in foreign affairs in his first term, with the so-called Abraham Accords, which brought forth normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states.
This op-ed was published by The New Republic on May 14, 2025. To read more click here
Featured image credit: SPA
