Trump welcomes Egypt’s President el-Sissi in US policy change

In what was the first visit by an Egyptian president to Washington in eight years, El-Sissi and Trump expressed mutual admiration and the common goal to defeat Islamic terror.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi and US President Donald Trump celebrated what they expect to be a close friendship based on a common goal to crush Islamic terror.

Trump’s warm welcome to the Egyptian leader represents a notable change in US policy. The relationship between the two countries was tense under the Obama administration, which often admonished al-Sissi’s government and briefly suspended military aid. Obama had never invited al-Sissi to the White House.

Trump has often mentioned Egypt as one of the Muslim-majority allies with which the US should partner in the fight against Radical Islam.

“President el-Sissi has been very close to me since the first time I met him. We agreed on so many things,” Trump said in his greeting to the Egyptian guest.