Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — As part of his first foreign trip as president, Donald Trump will deliver a major speech on Sunday to leaders of more than 50 Middle Eastern countries, which his national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, hinted could break from his past rhetoric on Islam and terrorism.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump was tough on what he called “radical Islamic terrorism” and bashed his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama for not using the phrase.
Trump used the phrase in a commencement speech to Coast Guard cadets this week, previewing his Sunday address in Saudi Arabia by saying, “I’ll speak with Muslim leaders and challenge them to fight hatred and extremism and embrace a peaceful future for their faith. … We have to stop radical Islamic terrorism.”
ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos pressed McMaster during an exclusive interview on whether the president plans on using the phrase during his first speech overseas in the Muslim world.
“I think what the president does is he listens to people. He listens to people in the region and a big part of this, this isn’t America just on transmit here in the Middle East. This is the president asking questions, listening, learning. And, of course, the president will call it whatever he wants to call it,” McMaster said in an interview that will air Sunday on This Week.
“I think it’s important that whatever we call it, we recognize that these are not religious people. And, in fact, these enemies of all civilization, what they want to do is to cloak their criminal behavior under this false idea of kind of a religious war,” McMaster added.
Earlier this week, McMaster said the speech is “intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners.”
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