In Abu Dhabi, Trump makes first visit to a mosque as president

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, and RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump visited a mosque on Thursday — his first publicly known visit to a Muslim house of worship during his time in office.

His visit to the United Arab Emirates’ Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque was just one stop on a larger diplomatic tour through the Middle East, the first major foreign trip of his second term.

Trump removed his shoes during his visit, as is customary in mosques, and was escorted by Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

“Isn’t this beautiful? It is so beautiful,” Trump said. “This is an incredible culture.”

The landmark mosque is known for its white marble domes and Italian-marbled floors with colored flower inlays. It is a popular cultural destination for tourists, politicians and celebrity visitors to Abu Dhabi.

Trump and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the UAE’s ruler who greeted Trump upon his arrival in the country, have close ties, in part built on the UAE’s decision to normalize relations with Israel in a landmark deal during Trump’s first term in office.

His visit to the UAE is the third stop on his Middle East tour that began with two days of lavish ceremonies in his honor in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In each country, Trump was given a ceremonial welcome with Arabian horses and honor guards.

Trump has extensive family business interests in all three countries, where Trump-branded towers and golf courses are being developed. A UAE fund also used the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture called World Liberty Financial to close a $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, each visited the mosque in 2020, during Trump’s first term while they were both working as administration officials.

Joe Biden went to the mosque on a 2016 trip, when he was vice president.

Trump is not known to have visited any mosques in the United States as president. It’s possible he has been to a mosque in his private life, though NPR was unable to confirm that.

While it’s common for U.S. presidents to visit churches, only a few have made official visits to mosques, according to the White House Historical Association. President Dwight Eisenhower opened a Washington, D.C. mosque in 1957, and former President George W. Bush spoke at the same mosque in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. In 2016, former President Barack Obama visited a mosque near Baltimore.

Trump, running for office in 2016, suggested without evidence that hateful ideas come out of mosques and repeatedly suggested they be placed under surveillance. And when he took office, Trump made good on a promise to ban travel from some Muslim-majority countries.

But he has since moderated his tone. In the November election, Arab and Muslim voters helped deliver the key swing state of Michigan to Trump — in part by casting ballots for third-party candidates. Many of them expressed disappointment with the Biden-Harris administration’s unwavering support for Israel’s war in Gaza, despite tens of thousands of civilian causalities.

“The Muslim community was there for us in November. And while I’m president, I will be there for you,” Trump said in March at a White House iftar during Ramadan.

Since his inauguration, though, his already-fraught relationship with Muslim voters appears to have soured. A ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war brokered in the final days of Biden administration has collapsed. Residents of the Gaza strip have not been able to receive aid for weeks because of an Israeli blockade. Domestically, the administration has detained Muslim residents as part of his larger immigration crackdown, arresting multiple Muslim college students who spoke out in support of Palestinian rights.

During his visit to the UAE, Trump again floated the idea — unpopular with Arab leaders — of taking control of the Gaza Strip.

“I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone, let some good things happen,” Trump said.

The president is slated to wrap up his Middle East trip on Friday.