Daily Times

SIGONELLA: With trouble facing him back home, US President Donald Trump ended his nine-day overseas journey in dramatic fashion on Saturday, addressing US troops at a campaign-style rally.

Trump flipped traditional US foreign policy upside down on his tour through the Middle East and Europe, coddling Middle Eastern leaders with questionable human rights records while demanding traditional European allies pay more for their defense.

At a Group of Seven summit in the resort town of Taormina on the island of Sicily, Trump refused to entreaties from the other six allies to maintain US support for the Paris climate agreement, insisting he needed more time to make up his mind.

In a hangar at Naval Air Station Sigonella, which is also on Sicily, Trump was introduced by his wife Melania, who has raised eyebrows during the trip by twice flicking away her husband’s hand when he tried to hold hers.

“My husband worked very hard on this trip and I am very proud of him,” she said.

Trump, whose Marine One helicopter landed from Taormina to the soaring soundtrack of the ‘Air Force One’ movie, emerged from two days of closed door summitry to declare his trip a success.

Trump said he had helped forge more international cooperation in the fight against Islamic militants, a threat he said was underscored by a suicide bomber in Manchester, England, and the killing of Coptic Christians in Egypt.

“It was a tremendously productive meeting where I strengthen American bonds,” said Trump. “We have great bonds with other countries and, with some of our closest allies, we concluded a truly historic week.”

Trump skipped the traditional end-of-trip news conference to avoid facing questions about a host of problems he faces upon his return to Washington later on Saturday.

His May 9 firing of former FBI Director James Comey has raised concerns about whether he was trying to squelch a federal probe into his campaign’s ties with Russia last year.

The questions have been intensified in the wake of disclosures on Friday that a senior adviser, Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, had contacts with the Russians in December about opening a secret back channel of communications with Moscow.

Trump said that many of the leaks from the White House were ‘fake news’, following reports his son-in-law tried to set up a secret channel of communications with Moscow before Trump took office.

Trump returned to the White House after a nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe that ended on Saturday to face more questions about alleged communications between his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington.

“It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media,” Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts on Sunday.

Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, had contacts with Moscow in December about opening a secret back channel of communications, according to news reports published while Trump was away on his trip. Kushner had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, seven current and former US officials said.