Donald Trump's Middle East Trip

Overview

Trump's Middle East Trip refers to President Donald Trump nine-day diplomatic visit to various Middle East countries. The trip, marked by numerous controversies, gaffes, and memes, was Trump's first venture abroad since becoming president.

Background

Amidst the mounting pressure from various controversies in the United States, including the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey and allegations of collusion with Russia during the 2016 Presidential Election, President Trump and his advisers boarded a plane for the Middle East in hopes of resetting the narrative of his first 100 days in office.

Developments

Sword Dance

On May 20th, President Trump joined in on a celebration at Murabba palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. During the festivities, Trump, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, were seen dancing with swords (shown below), during a traditional celebration.

Twitter user @davidmackau^[6][7] was among the first to share the footage. In the first of two tweets (shown below, left), he said, "please enjoy this footage of the secretaries of commerce and state dancing awkwardly while holding swords." The tweet received more than 4,500 retweets and 7,200 likes. The second tweet said, "And here is President Trump dancing in Saudi Arabia." The followup received more than 1,400 retweets and 1,200 likes.

The video soon became popular on social media. One of the most popular posts comes from the Facebook account "Middle Class Memes for Rees-Moggian Teens. The post featured the video with the caption "The things you'll do for oil." By May 23rd, the post had more than 1.4 million views, 26,000 reactions and 20,000 shares.

Donald Trump's Glowing Orb

On May 21st, 2017, Donald Trump, Saudi Arabian king Salman and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi held a ceremony to launch the opening of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. During the ceremony, the three men joined together to place their hands on a large, glowing globe in the center of the room (shown below).

That day, the @SaudiEmbassyUSA^[1] Twitter feed posted a photograph of the men touching the globe in which many of the countries were obscured by their hands (shown below).

That day, the photograph was widely circulated on Twitter, with many expressing confusion about the context of the photo. Additionally, the photograph was captioned with various jokes mocking the bizarre pose.

Melania Swats Donald's Hand

On the morning of May 22nd, video of Melania Trump swatting Donald's hand away as he attempted to hold her hand on an Israeli tarmac. One of the earliest to share the video, Twitter user @raggapegs^[2] posted a the clip with the caption, "LOL! Melania in Tel Aviv is as MISERABLE, as Melania in the U.S. Watch her push away the CREEP's hand. PRICELESS😂😂😂This guy is DISGUSTING!" The tweet (shown below) received more than 11,000 retweets and 17,000 likes.

Later that day, Gizmodo's Matt Novak posted the video to YouTube. Within 24 hours, it went to number one on YouTube's trending chart with more than 5.7 million views.

Several news outlets covered the swat, including The New York Daily News,^[3] Gizmodo,^[4] The Daily Dot,^[5] and more. Twitter published a Moments page to document the reaction.^[12]

The next day, video of another failed handhold went viral. Twitter user @DaniellaMicaela tweeted "Trump and Melania arrive to Rome AF1 👋" with a gif Donald Trump extending his hand for a hold, and Melania ignoring his offer. The tweet (shown below) received more than 4,500 retweets and 7,500 likes.

Twitter, again, published a Moments page to document response to the footage.^[13]

Trump At The Western Wall

On May 22nd, Trump visited one of the holiest places in the Jewish world, the Western Wall, becoming the first sitting president to visit.^[8] Shortly after, pictures of Trump leaving a note in the wall, as is customary, circulated online and people began making jokes on Twitter. One of the most popular comes from Twitter user @shannonrwatts (shown below), who tweeted “Donald Trump leaves a copy of his electoral map win inside the Western Wall.” The tweet received more than 12,000 retweets and 36,000 likes.

Throughout the day, more people took to Twitter and began making jokes about the image. Redditor Olly00000^[11] posted on the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit "Trump and the wall memes are a hot commodity right now. Buy fast but be prepared to sell quickly." They included a photo (shown below, far left) of Trump at the wall with the caption "'Who paid for you,' he whispered. But the old wall keeps her secrets." The post received more than 1,000 points (98% upvoted).

Search Interest

External References