President Donald Trump used his historic trip to the Middle East for the first phase of the Gaza peace plan to lavish high praise on authoritarian regimes.
The president arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Monday morning as part of his whirlwind trip to the region where he sat down with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and other top officials.
“This country is doing very well. It has good leadership. It’s about leadership,” Trump declared.
Sisi overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected government in a military coup in 2013 and installed a brutal dictatorship instead.
While Egypt remains a strategic ally to the U.S. in the region, Trump zeroed in not on their partnership but Sisi’s regime.
“When you say ‘How is your crime situation?’ And they like don’t even know what you’re talking about. ‘What do you mean crime?’” Trump said.
“Because if he has crime, he puts it out very quickly,” the president added. “Some people would think that’s not nice, but I think it’s great because people don’t want to be mugged and smashed, and they don’t want to be stupid people.”
His comments on crime under Egypt’s dictatorship came as he has made unfounded claims about crime in the U.S. and has repeatedly tried to deploy the military to cities that he has blasted as war zones.
“They have very little crime because they don’t play games. That’s why. Like we do in the United States with governors that have no idea what they’re doing,” the president claimed.
Trump’s comments about Sisi’s rule and crime were unprompted as he was answering questions about the peace plan in the Middle East.
The president went on to fondly repeat how the two leaders had first met at a hotel when the president was just a candidate in 2016. Trump recalled their “very good chemistry together.”
It was hardly the first time the president has lavished praise on authoritarian regimes around the world—but his gushing on Monday didn’t stop after his sit-down with the Egyptian leader.
Later while celebrating the ceasefire deal with leaders from around the world, the president could not stop admiring strongmen during his remarks.
He touted his relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was also seated with him at the table as they signed the deal.
“I don’t know what it is, I like the tough people better than I like the soft easy ones. I don’t know what the hell that is. That’s a personality problem I suspect,” Trump said.
Turkey has been moving toward an authoritarianism, according to human rights groups.
The president then went back to praising the job Sisi was doing as “amazing.” He also got sidetracked as he looked around the room at all the leaders in attendance from Middle Eastern as well as European countries.
“They all have so much money. There’s more money and power sitting behind us. I love that they’re behind us,” Trump declared gesturing widely. “They’ve never been sitting behind anybody before.”
He also dropped a “crooked Hillary” line and noted the media was giving him good coverage for once on the peace deal while complaining he wished it would happen more often.
Trump’s meeting first with Sisi and then with other world leaders came as as the first phase of his 20-point peace plan was carried out between Hamas and Israel.
The last 20 living Israeli hostages taken more than two years ago on October 7 were finally released from Gaza and were being returned to their families in a series of emotional reunions.
The president was asked when phase two of the negotiations would begin. Trump said phase two to clean up Gaza had already begun as far as he was concerned.
The post Trump Gushes Over Dictatorship During Historic Middle East Visit appeared first on The Daily Beast.
