The White House is describing President Donald Trump’s first dose of Middle East diplomacy as a “historic” success, but some lawmakers are skeptical that optimistic rhetoric will become policy, and at least one is looking to block a major announcement from the trip. – Roll Call
Qatar complained that its state news agency had been hacked in a mischievous attempt to misrepresent its emir as a backer of Islamist groups. But, despite the Qatari entreaties, media in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have continued to cite the supposed comments by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. – Financial Times
Newt Gingrich writes: Journalists and Washington bureaucrats, who are so deeply embedded in the establishment that they can’t see out of it, may see Trump’s call to action as a distracting sideshow from a status quo they can’t imagine changing. And yet this week, it already has. Foreign leaders and the American people alike can see in this trip the core of a new, reality-based foreign policy. – Washington Post