After months of mixed signals from Washington over what Donald Trump’s foreign policy will mean for the Middle East, the president has revealed his hand. In his speech Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Trump explained that America is no longer trying to remake the world in its image.
“In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins,” Trump said.
This echoes the first half of the Serenity Prayer, made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous: “God grant me the power to accept the things I cannot change.” And this marks a real change for U.S. foreign policy. America is no longer going to hector its allies about whether women have the right to drive or whether dissidents disappear into dark prisons. Trump’s message to America’s allies in the Middle East is: You do you.