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.
Claudette Colvin, who refused to move seats on a bus at start of civil rights movement, dies
Civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin has died. She was 86. Her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement.
Claudette Colvin, who refused to move seats on a bus at start of civil rights movement, dies at 86
Colvin, at age 15, was arrested nine months before Rosa Parks gained international fame for also refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
Republicans say Clintons risk contempt of Congress for not testifying on Epstein
House Republicans are seeking testimony as part of their investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Clintons say they've already provided in writing what little they know.
FTC accuses AI search engine of ‘rampant consumer deception’
Federal officials say a company that operates hundreds of landing pages for AI answers is running an operation that has duped thousands of users, who were unable to stop costly monthly charges.
How Minnesota faith communities are resisting aggressive immigration operations
As immigration enforcement actions have ramped up in Minnesota, people of faith have been at the forefront of the response to ICE detentions and the killing of Renee Macklin Good by a federal agent.
‘My role was making movies that mattered,’ says Jodie Foster, as ‘Taxi Driver’ turns 50
Foster was just 12 years old when she starred in the 1976 film. "What luck to have been part of that, our golden age of cinema in the '70s," she says. Her latest film is Vie Privée (A Private Life).
