DENVER -- President Donald Trump is on first international trip since taking the oath of office this weekend.
The five stop trip through the Middle East and Europe starts in Saudi Arabia and will be a crucial test for a president who faces chaos at home after the firing of FBI director James Comey and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible ties between his campaign and Russia.
“I think the most serious issue President Trump has right now is to really establish credibility with allies but also to make it clear to our foes out there that we’re going to be strong, we’re going to working with our allies and we’re going to prevail,” former Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill told Anne Trujillo on this week’s Politics Unplugged.
Hill, who is currently the dean of Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, says this is going to be a tough trip for the President.
“He’s going to be talking to European allies and they need some reassurance. And then he’s going to some really tough places including Saudi Arabia and the Saudis are very concerned about a lot issues going on in their region,” Hill added.
But Hill says one of the toughest issues the President is facing are his campaign’s possible ties to Russia and how those ties may be interpreted by U.S. allies.
“I think we need to understand that that country is aggressively challenging our interest around the world, challenge our relationship with Western Europe, challenging some of the countries of Europe that are on the eastern flank, such as Poland, Estonia, those other countries,” Hill said. “So again, this is a matter of alliance management, a matter of showing these countries we have alliances with them and we’re going to take that very seriously.”
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Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.