Foreign Governments to Ensure Trump Is Served Steak With a Side of Ketchup – and Very Short Presentations

Trump First Overseas Trip an Embarrassment for America Even Before He Takes Off

President Donald Trump embarks on his first overseas trip Friday, and the governments he will visit are taking extraordinary steps to ensure the American President feels right at home. 

In what sounds like it could be an excerpt straight out of the 1958 political novel The Ugly American, Trump will be made to feel right at home rather than experience local culture and customs when he travels to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Rome.

Donald Trump, a billionaire who back in February infamously said: “I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it,” has never bothered to educate himself. A man with more wealth and time than most even dream of, Trump spends every possible moment at Trump branded resorts and clubs, rarely traveling outside the U.S., unless it’s to ink a deal on foreign soil.

“When President Donald Trump sits down for dinner in Saudi Arabia, caterers have ensured that his favorite meal — steak with a side of ketchup — will be offered alongside the traditional local cuisine,” the Associated Press reports Friday, in what is an embarrassment to America. But it’s in keeping with Trump’s “America first” motto.

“At NATO and the Group of 7 summits, foreign delegations have gotten word that the new U.S. president prefers short presentations and lots of visual aids. And at all of Trump’s five stops on his first overseas trip, his team has spent weeks trying to build daily downtime into his otherwise jam-packed schedule.”

The AP calls it “all part of a worldwide effort to accommodate America’s homebody president on a voyage with increasingly raised stakes given the ballooning controversy involving his campaign’s possible ties to Russia. For a former international businessman, Trump simply doesn’t have an affinity for much international.”

And then there’s this embarrassing revelation.

“The trip marks the first time since taking office that Trump has spent a night away from the White House at a property that doesn’t bear his name. And it’s not just the bragging rights Trump gets when he goes to his own properties: Staffers know his meal preferences and the exact temperature he likes a room set at. He’s often surrounded by long-time friends and acquaintances who have memberships to the commander in chief-owned retreats.”

Trump’ first trip abroad as president has forced host governments to abandon usual protocols to curry favor with the mercurial president.

“After four months of interactions between Mr. Trump and his counterparts,” The New York Times reports, “foreign officials and their Washington consultants say certain rules have emerged: Keep it short — no 30-minute monologue for a 30-second attention span. Do not assume he knows the history of the country or its major points of contention. Compliment him on his Electoral College victory. Contrast him favorably with President Barack Obama. Do not get hung up on whatever was said during the campaign. Stay in regular touch. Do not go in with a shopping list but bring some sort of deal he can call a victory.”

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Image by Kentucky National Guard via Flickr and a CC license