FOREIGN POLICY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump leaves on Friday [5-19-71] for a nine-day, five-city foreign excursion, his first trip outside the United States as the country’s leader and top diplomat. He doesn’t really want to go.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has groused to several friends that he is not looking forward to leaving his new White House cocoon for high-profile, high-pressure meetings with dozens of world leaders in unfamiliar settings…
But the trip comes at a critical moment for Mr. Trump’s young presidency. It is his first opportunity to deliver specifics about his ‘America first’ worldview to a global audience that has watched his initial, chaotic months in the White House with a mix of amusement, befuddlement and alarm.
The president’s packed schedule is filled with opportunities for Mr. Trump to slip up, publicly or privately: back-to-back discussions with the leaders of other nations, many of whom are veteran negotiators well versed in issues they care deeply about. By contrast, it could also serve as a much-needed change of subject for a president besieged at home with an agenda frozen by scandal.”
-Michael D. Shear and Maggie Haberman, “Foreign Trip Comes at Crucial Time, but Trump Is a Reluctant Traveler,” The New York Times online, May 17, 2017