Source: BBC

As President Donald Trump tries to re-instate his controversial travel ban, there is one thing he does not need to worry about – any opposition from Egypt.

When President Trump decided to temporarily close America’s borders to citizens of seven mainly Muslim nations, the response from Cairo was striking.

The Arab world’s most populous nation made its silence felt. Egypt’s hardline leader, and his supporters, are on the Trump train.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi was the first Arab leader to congratulate Mr Trump on his election victory. The bromance began at their first meeting in New York last September, when Donald Trump was still on the campaign trail.

“There was good chemistry there,” Mr Trump said afterwards. “He’s a fantastic guy.” He praised the general-turned-president for “really taking control of Egypt” as indeed he did – in a popularly backed coup in 2013.

While the US did not call it a coup, the military’s removal of Egypt’s first democratically elected president – the Islamist Mohammed Morsi – caused a rupture with President Obama. Now President Sisi is looking forward to a reset in relations, and a visit to the White House – which the Obama administration denied him.

Common ground

When he gets there (the visit is still being planned) human rights are unlikely to be on the agenda. Neither leader has much to say about that, but they speak the same language about tackling Islamic extremism.

President Trump has vowed to wipe “radical Islamic terrorism” from the face of the Earth. President Sisi has promised to “combat and eradicate terrorism and extremism”.

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