With Three Words Missing, Trump Tries to Change Tone on Muslims
- President eschews ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ in speech
- Choice of words may have been lost on Arab listeners
Trump Says 'Peace Begins Right Here' in Mideast
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President Donald Trump set aside a defiant catchphrase of his political campaign in his first major address to the Muslim world, refraining from using “radical Islamic terrorism” to describe the threat.
During the campaign, Trump said repeatedly that any politician who wouldn’t use those words was too weak or obsessed with political correctness to be president. In the run-up to the speech in Riyadh on Sunday, Trump’s advisers had suggested he would substitute the more muted “Islamist extremism.”