‘Principled Realism’
Donald Trump’s recent sojourn in the Middle East leaves the United States where it was before the president departed: His administration remains committed to containing Iran while philosophically adopting a pre-9/11 approach to combating Sunni Islamic militancy. Sunni Arab leaders have reason to be content. However much Candidate Trump wanted to avoid wars and costly alliances, President Trump clearly isn’t going to abandon the southern Middle East to Iranian aggression. His Riyadh “Islam speech,” which was more about the Islamic Republic than anything else, signaled that Trump wasn’t particularly moved by the reelection of the foreign-investment-loving Iranian president Hassan Rouhani.
