Tag Archives: Donald Trump

France, worried by Trump, promises to be defender of Iran nuclear deal

France leader saying he will continue Iran Nuclear Deal

By John Irish

TEHRAN (Reuters) – France vowed on Monday to act as defender of Iran’s nuclear deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to tear up, but said it was imperative Tehran abide strictly by the conditions of the accord.

Arriving in the Iranian capital for a two-day visit, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said it was in the “common interest” that the 2015 accord under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for lifted sanctions was obeyed.

During the U.S. election race Trump had branded it “the worst deal ever negotiated”, telling voters he would either rip it up or seek a better agreement.

“I’m coming as the defender of the accord, but to be vigilant and explain that they (the Iranians) must be irreproachable,” Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters after landing in Tehran.

“We harbor real concerns about the U.S. administration’s attitude towards this agreement,” he said.

The deal was brokered by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France. Paris took one of the hardest lines against Tehran in the negotiations, but has been quick to restore trade ties.

Major French corporations including planemaker Airbus, oil major Total and automobile manufacturers Peugeot and Renault have all signed deals.

Ayrault said that while Tehran had “largely” kept to the terms of the deal, it had pushed the spirit of the accord over the past year by carrying out several ballistic missile tests.

“We want this agreement to be respected. It is in the common interest of the international community that it is,” Ayrault said.

The foreign minister is due to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the powerful Secretary of Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani.

The visit, which includes an economic conference where some contracts may be concluded, will provide an opportunity for talks on Syria. Paris is a vociferous opponent of Iran’s backing of Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad.

“We will discuss our disagreements, notably on Syria. “We had hoped Iran would be less aggressive in the region,” Ayrault said, referring to the period since the nuclear deal.

On Sunday, Trump spoke by telephone with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, a close U.S.-ally in the Middle East. A White House statement said the two leaders agreed on the need to address “Iran’s destabilizing regional activities.”

(Editing by Ingrid Melander and Richard Lough)

Jihadists mock Trump travel ban, vow more attacks

FILE PHOTO: An Islamic State flag is seen in this picture

By Omar Fahmy and Ali Abdelaty

CAIRO (Reuters) – Supporters of Islamic State mocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to deny entry to citizens of seven Muslim- majority countries, saying it would fail to stop attacks in the United States and help win new militant recruits instead.

“Your decision will do nothing. Attacks will come at you from inside America, from Americans born in America with American parents and grandparents,” one Islamic State supporter posted on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app.

In a move he said would help protect the United States from terrorists, Trump signed an order on Friday suspending the entry of people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for at least 90 days. Admission of all refugees was halted for four months, and for Syrians indefinitely.

The sweeping travel curbs took effect immediately, wreaking havoc for would-be travellers with passports from the seven countries and prompting an international outcry.

Islamic State, which has been fighting military assaults on several fronts in its heartlands of northern Syria and Iraq, has made no formal comment on Trump’s ban. But some sympathisers took to social media to pour scorn on immigration restrictions they said would serve Islamic State’s cause.

“Trump bans Muslims from entering America and kills them in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, then threatens them … the wretch does not know he presents an invaluable service to Islamic State,” a supporter calling himself Salem al-Mosuly wrote on Twitter.

An Islamist channel on the messaging app Telegram called “Scholars of Haq”, monitored by U.S. monitoring service SITE, asked whether Trump’s policies meant he was currently the best “caller to Islam” – someone who attracts new believers.

Of the first 48 users to respond, 34 answered that he was, according to SITE. SITE quoted one respondent, Abu Magrebi, as saying: “What Trump has done has clearly revealed the truth, and harsh reality behind the American government’s hatred towards Muslims.”

“What is Trump doing to his country? He just become president and already people (are) protesting against his policy, and worldwide countries criticising him. Trump will bring American down God willing,” Abu Magrebi wrote in another post monitored by SITE.

By Monday morning, the Scholars of Haq channel had been taken down, along with several other channels on which Islamist militants had posted responses on Sunday.

Other Islamic State supporters mocked an order issued by Trump on Sunday requiring his joint chiefs of staff give him a plan, in the next 30 days, to defeat the militant group.

“The Crusader Trump has made himself an unthinking Pharaoh. The despicable Crusader forgets the reckless utterances of Bush Junior and the mule Obama before him. They did not succeed and by the grace of God we will rub his nose in the mud as we did his predecessors,” wrote user Turjman Al Asawirti on Telegram.

(Additional reporting by Sami Aboudi in Dubai and Eric Knecht in Cairo; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Peter Graff)

Tens of thousands in U.S. cities protest Trump immigration order

Protesters yello slogans in protest of travel ban

By Frank McGurty and Nathan Frandino

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people rallied in U.S. cities and at airports on Sunday to voice outrage over President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting entry into the country for travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.

In New York, Washington and Boston, a second wave of demonstrations followed spontaneous rallies that broke out at U.S. airports on Saturday as U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents began enforcing Trump’s directive. The protests spread westward as the day progressed.

The order, which bars admission of Syrian refugees and suspends travel to the United States from Syria, Iraq, Iran and four other countries on national security grounds, has led to the detention or deportation of hundreds of people arriving at U.S. airports.

One of the largest of Sunday’s protests took place at Battery Park in lower Manhattan, within sight of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, long a symbol of welcome to U.S. shores.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York told the crowd that Trump’s order was un-American and ran counter to the country’s core values.

“What we are talking about here is life and death for so many people,” the Senate Democratic leader said. “I will not rest until these horrible orders are repealed.”

The march, estimated to have grown to about 10,000 people, later began heading to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in lower Manhattan.

In Washington, thousands rallied at Lafayette Square across from the White House, chanting: “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here.”

It was the second straight weekend that Washington was the scene of protests. Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of women participated in an anti-Trump rally and march, one of dozens staged across the country.

On Sunday, many of the protesters left the White House area and marched along Pennsylvania Avenue, stopping at the Trump International Hotel where they shouted: “Shame, shame, shame.”

A crowd that police estimated at 8,000 people eventually arrived at the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where a line of uniformed officers stood guard.

As the crowd passed the Canadian Embassy en route to the Capitol, protesters chanted: “Hey hey, ho ho, I wish our leader was Trudeau.” It was a reference to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Saturday Twitter message affirming his country’s welcoming policy toward refugees.

Trump defended the executive order in a statement on Sunday, saying the United States would resume issuing visas to all countries once secure policies were put in place over the next 90 days.

“To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting,” Trump said. “This is not about religion – this is about terror and keeping our country safe.”

‘NEVER AGAIN MEANS NEVER’

Aria Grabowski, 30, of Washington, was carrying a sign that read: “Never again means never again for everyone.”

Above the slogan was a photograph of Jewish refugees who fled Germany in 1939 on a ship that was turned away from Havana, Cuba, and forced to return to Europe. More than 250 people aboard the ship were eventually killed by the Nazis.

About 200 protesters chanted on Sunday afternoon at Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia near the U.S. capital.

About the same number gathered at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, where anxious families awaited relatives detained for hours after flights from countries affected by the presidential order.

At Los Angeles International Airport, police estimated 4,000 demonstrators crowded into and around terminals to protest Trump’s order, as chants of “refugees are welcome here” echoed through the arrivals hall.

Organizers estimated that more than 10,000 people packed Boston’s Copley Square to hear Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a vocal critic of Trump and a leader of the Democratic Party’s liberal wing, and other speakers.

During the protests, dozens of Muslims, some of them kneeling on protest signs, bowed in prayer on rugs laid out on a grassy patch of ground in the square.

In Houston, which was already filling up with visitors for next Sunday’s Super Bowl, about 500 people marched through the downtown.

Jennifer Fagen, 47, a sociology professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, said she hoped she did not lose her job for protesting.

“I’m Jewish, and it’s supposed to be ‘never again,'” Fagen said, referring to the Holocaust. “Jews should be the first ones to defend Muslims, considering what has happened to us, and it seems it’s being repeated under Trump.”

At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, police cordoned off sections of terminal as up to 3,000 demonstrators chanted, “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here.”

Among the demonstrators were Wail Aljirafi and his wife, Samyeh Zindani of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and their three children.

“We want them to feel that they’re always included,” Zindani, a Yemeni-American, told Reuters.

In the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck, Michigan, home to a large number of Yemeni immigrant families and the nation’s first Muslim-majority city council, at least 600 people rallied outside City Hall.

Rama Alhoussaini, 23, a Syrian immigrant who lives in nearby Dearborn, said she and her family emigrated to Michigan in 1999 when she was 6 years old.

“Now for us to see this kind of hatred and bigotry, it breaks my heart,” she said. “It makes me feel like I am not wanted here.”

(Additional reporting by Susan Corwall, Ian Simpson and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Brian Snyder in Boston, Ruthy Munoz in Houston, Chris Francescani in New York, Daina Beth Solomon in Los Angeles and Serena Maria Daniels in Detroit; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jonathan Oatis)

Trump’s call for deadlier Islamic State push may hit limits

Donald Trump

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for a military plan to defeat Islamic State is likely to see the Pentagon revisiting options for a more aggressive use of firepower and American troops.

But U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, doubt the country’s military will advocate fundamentally changing a key strategy refined during the Obama administration: relying on local forces to do most of the fighting, and dying, in Syria and Iraq.

“I think it’s going to be very successful. That’s big stuff,” said Trump as he signed an executive order on Saturday requesting the Pentagon, joint chiefs of staff and other agencies to submit a preliminary plan in 30 days for defeating Islamic State, fulfilling one of his campaign trail pledges.

The order calls for the combined experts to recommend any changes needed to U.S. rules of engagement or other policy restrictions, to identify new coalition partners and to suggest mechanisms for choking off Islamic State funding sources. It also demands a detailed strategy for funding the plan.

Trump made defeating Islamic State – which has claimed responsibility for several attacks on American soil and is frustrating U.S. military operations across the Middle East – one of the key themes in his campaign. But he avoided talking about specifics of any plan to combat the radical group.

Any shifts by the U.S. military would have broad repercussions for U.S. relationships across the Middle East, which were strained by former President Barack Obama’s effort throughout his administration to limit U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Syria.

Trump’s Defense Secretary James Mattis has advocated a more forceful approach against Islamic State, but how he will pursue that remains unclear.

U.S. military officials have long acknowledged the United States could more quickly defeat Islamic State by using its own forces, instead of local fighters, on the battlefield.

But victory, many U.S. military officials have argued, would come at the expense of more U.S. lives lost and ultimately do little to create a lasting solution to conflicts fueled by bitter ethnic, religious and political divides in nations with fierce anti-American sentiment.

David Barno, a retired lieutenant general who once led U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said it would be a major escalation if Trump’s administration opted to rely on U.S. troops by putting them into a direct combat role and effectively substitute them for local forces.

“We’ve been down that road, and I don’t think the American people are excited about that idea,” said Barno, who now teaches at American University in Washington, D.C.

Experts said the Pentagon could still request additional forces, beyond the less than 6,000 American troops deployed to both Iraq and Syria today, helping the U.S. military to go further and do more in the fight.

But they also said the Pentagon may focus on smaller-scale options like increasing the number of attack helicopters and air strikes as well as bringing in more artillery. The military may also seek more authority to make battlefield decisions.

Obama’s administration found itself for years battling accusations of micromanaging the wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

“I do think the Pentagon will argue for, and get a lot more authority, to put advisers and special operators closer into the fight,” Barno said.

RAQQA RAMP-UP

Trump, who pledged in his inaugural address to eradicate Islamic State and like-minded groups “from the face of the earth,” met military chiefs at the Pentagon for about an hour on Friday.

A U.S. defense official, speaking to reporters after the talks, said they discussed ways to accelerate the defeat of Islamic State, among other hot-button issues, including the threat from North Korea, but offered no details.

“The chiefs did most of the talking,” the official said.

In Syria, the big step for the U.S.-backed forces will be finally taking control of the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa.

In his Senate confirmation hearing, Mattis said he believed the United States already had a strategy that would allow the American military to regain control of Raqqa. But he said that strategy needed to be reviewed and “perhaps energized on a more aggressive timeline.”

One key decision awaiting the Trump administration is whether to directly provide weapons to Kurdish fighters in Syria as they push toward Raqqa, despite fierce objections from NATO ally Turkey.

The United States views the Kurdish fighters as its most reliable ally in Syria but Ankara sees them as an extension of Kurdish militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency on Turkish soil.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which include the Kurdish fighters, launched a multi-stage operation in Raqqa province in November aimed ultimately at capturing the city from Islamic State.

Across the border in Iraq, local forces backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and advisers on the ground have secured a major part of Islamic State’s Iraqi stronghold of Mosul.

Still, U.S. military leaders warn Islamic State will likely morph into a more classic insurgency once it loses Raqqa and Mosul, meaning the fight could stretch on for years.

(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton.; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Bill Rigby)

Trump, South Korea’s Hwang agree to strengthen defenses against North Korea: White House

South Korea leader

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn agreed to take steps to strengthen joint defense capabilities to defend against North Korea’s nuclear threat, the White House said on Sunday after a telephone call between the two leaders.

“President Trump reiterated our ironclad commitment to defend (South Korea), including through the provision of extended deterrence, using the full range of military capabilities,” the White House said in a statement.

It also said Trump and Hwang discussed the upcoming visit by the new U.S. defense secretary to Japan and South Korea, where shared concerns about North Korea will top the agenda.

The United States and South Korea have agreed to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system designed to protect against North Korea’s growing nuclear and ballistic capabilities despite objections from China, which says the radar could penetrate Chinese territory.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Jan. 1 his country was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and state media has said a launch could come at any time.

North Korea has maintained its nuclear and missile programs in violation of repeated rounds of international sanctions.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Will Dunham)

Netanyahu backs U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem though signals no urgency

giant banner congratulating Donald Trump in Jerusalem, Israel

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support on Sunday for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem but mentioned no time frame, after a Republican activist accused Israel of pressing the Trump administration to delay the pledged step.

In an interview with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, Marc Zell, head of the Republicans Overseas Israel branch, said new U.S. President Donald Trump was “proceeding cautiously because of concerns raised by Israeli officials”.

Trump’s team spoke often during the presidential campaign about shifting the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel’s self-proclaimed capital and a holy city at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But a week ago, Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, lowered expectations of an imminent announcement about an embassy move that would anger the Arab world and possibly touch off violence. [ID:nL5N1FD5Y9]

Palestinian officials said the embassy’s relocation would kill off any prospects for peace. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem – which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move not recognized internationally – for the capital of a state they seek in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials said last Sunday the embassy issue was barely discussed in a 30-minute telephone call between Trump and Netanyahu, who are to meet in Washington early next month.

Netanyahu addressed the matter in general terms in public remarks to his cabinet on Sunday that were described by Israeli media as a response to Zell’s accusation of foot-dragging.

“I want to take the opportunity to make it unequivocally clear that our position has always been, and remains so now and at all times, that the U.S. embassy should be here, in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said, without directly mentioning Zell.

Currently, no country has its embassy in Jerusalem, the Israeli foreign ministry said. Costa Rica and El Salvador did until a few years ago, but they are now in Tel Aviv.

“Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and it is right and proper that all of the foreign embassies, and not only the American embassy, move here. I believe that in time, most of them will indeed come to Jerusalem,” Netanyahu told the cabinet.

The international community says Jerusalem’s final status should be determined via direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians – talks that collapsed in 2014.

Israeli officials have said they do not want a U.S. embassy move rushed and political commentators have noted that its relocation would damage the stronger relations Israel has been quietly building with the Sunni Muslim world.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Ukraine says more soldiers killed in deadliest clashes in weeks

KIEV (Reuters) – The number of Ukrainian soldiers killed in an offensive by pro-Russian separatists over the past two days has risen to seven, Ukraine’s military said on Monday, in the deadliest outbreak of fighting in the east of the country since mid-December.

The clashes between Ukraine’s military and the pro-Russian separatists coincide with U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for better relations with Moscow that has alarmed Kiev while the conflict in its eastern region remains unresolved.

The rebels began attacking government positions in the eastern frontline town of Avdiyivka on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. Five soldiers were killed and nine wounded on Sunday and two more were killed on Monday, they said.

“The situation in the Avdiyivka industrial zone is challenging. The enemy continues to fire at our positions with heavy artillery and mortars,” Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told a regular daily briefing.

The separatist website DAN said on Monday shelling by Ukrainian troops had killed one female civilian and wounded three others in the rebel-held town of Makiyivka, south of Avdiyivka. The reports could not be independently verified.

On Sunday the separatists said one of their fighters had been killed during heavy Ukrainian shelling of their positions.

Both sides accuse the other of violating a two-year-old ceasefire deal on a near-daily basis.

Close to 10,000 people have been killed since fighting between Ukrainian troops and rebels seeking independence from Kiev first erupted in April 2014.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was due to discuss the state of the conflict on Monday in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who helped broker the Minsk ceasefire deal.

Ukraine and NATO accuse the Kremlin of supporting the rebels with troops and weapons, which it denies. The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia over the conflict, as well as for its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

Ukraine is anxious that international resolve to hold Russia to account may waver following the election of Trump, who has spoken of possibly lifting sanctions against Moscow.

Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday and the two men agreed to try to rebuild strained ties and to cooperate in Syria.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Wall St. set to open lower after Trump’s travel curbs

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks looked set to open lower on Monday, amid uncertainty following President Donald Trump’s orders to curb travel and immigration from certain countries.

Trump on Friday signed executive orders to bar admission of Syrian refugees and suspend travel to the United States from Syria, Iraq, Iran and four other countries on the grounds of national security.

Thousands of people rallied in major U.S. cities and at airports in protest, while several countries including long-standing American allies criticized the measures as discriminatory and divisive.

The promise of tax cuts and simpler regulations had lured investors into equity markets since Trump’s election in November, but some are worried about the potential risk of his protectionist policies.

The pullback in futures suggests that the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> could fall below the 20,000 mark it hit for the first time ever on Wednesday.

“A new week of trading is getting off on a sour note, as key macro news, Fed action, international and domestic backlash over Trump’s immigration stand are putting investors on the defense,” Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial, wrote in a note.

“We look for a bumpy to negative ride as the ‘Worry Trade’ rules the day.”

Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were down 70 points, or 0.35 percent, at 8:32 a.m. ET (1332 GMT), with 21,512 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were down 9.25 points, or 0.4 percent, with 128,685 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were down 21.5 points, or 0.42 percent, on volume of 22,585 contracts.

A report from the U.S. Commerce Department showed consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased 0.5 percent after a 0.2 percent gain in November.

Shares of big technology companies Microsoft <MSFT.O>, Alphabet <GOOGL.O> and Netflix <NFLX.O> were down between 0.60 percent and 0.90 percent in premarket trading on Monday. Apple <AAPL.O> and Facebook <FB.O>, which are scheduled to report results this week, were also lower.

Tempur Sealy <TPX.N> dropped 26 percent to $46.70 after the company said it terminated its contracts with mattress retailer Mattress Firm following disagreements over changes in their contracts.

Data technology company Ixia <XXIA.O> rose 5.8 percent to $19.25 after Keysight Technologies <KEYS.N> said it would buy the company for about $1.6 billion.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Trump talks to Putin, other world leaders about security threats

President Donald Trump and staff

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump discussed Syria and the fight against Islamic State with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday in one of several calls with world leaders that the new U.S. president used to put his stamp on international affairs.

Trump’s call with Putin was their first since the New York businessman took office and came as officials said he was considering lifting sanctions on Moscow despite opposition from Democrats and Republicans at home and European allies abroad.

Neither the White House nor the Kremlin mentioned a discussion of sanctions in their statements about the roughly hour-long call.

“The positive call was a significant start to improving the relationship between the United States and Russia that is in need of repair,” the White House said. “Both President Trump and President Putin are hopeful that after today’s call the two sides can move quickly to tackle terrorism and other important issues of mutual concern.”

Former President Barack Obama strongly suggested in December that Putin personally authorized the computer hacks of Democratic Party emails that U.S. intelligence officials say were part of a Russian effort aimed at helping Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 election.

Trump’s relationship with Russia is being closely watched by the European Union, which teamed up with the United States to punish Moscow after its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Trump spoke to two top EU leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, on Saturday in addition to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

His call with Merkel, who had a very close relationship with Trump’s predecessor, former President Barack Obama, included a discussion about Russia, the Ukraine crisis, and NATO, the U.S. and German governments said.

Trump has described NATO as being obsolete, a comment that has alarmed long-time U.S. allies. A White House statement said he and Merkel agreed NATO must be capable of confronting “21rst century threats.”

Trump’s executive order restricting travel and instituting “extreme vetting” of visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries already puts him at odds with Merkel, whose embrace of Syrian refugees was praised by Obama even as it created political problems for her domestically.

Trump has said previously that Merkel made a “catastrophic mistake” by permitting more than a million refugees, mostly Muslims fleeing war in the Middle East, to come to her country.

In his call with Hollande, Trump “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO and noted the importance of all NATO allies sharing the burden on defense spending,” the White House said.

Hollande warned Trump against taking a protectionist approach, which he said would have economic and political consequences, according to a statement from the French president’s office.

The refugee order created confusion and chaotic scenes in airports on Saturday and largely overshadowed the news of Trump’s calls with foreign leaders, which took place throughout the day and which photographers captured in photos and video outside the Oval Office.

During his call with Japan’s Abe, Trump affirmed an “ironclad” U.S. commitment to ensuring Japan’s security. The two leaders also discussed the threat posed by North Korea. They plan to meet in Washington early next month.

Trump spoke to Australia’s Turnbull for 25 minutes and emphasized the close relationship between the two countries.

(additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Andrea Shalal, Andrew Osborn, Alexander Winning, and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Tycoon Slim says ready to help Mexico negotiate with Trump

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim shows the book "Crippled America: How to make America great again" by Donald Trump during a news conference in Mexico City, Mexico

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim said on Friday he is willing to help the government negotiate with Donald Trump, and called on Mexicans from all political parties to unite behind President Enrique Pena Nieto in his discussions with the U.S. president.

In a rare news conference by the generally media-shy mogul, Slim said Mexico needed to negotiate from a position of strength, noting that Trump, who he called a “great negotiator,” represented a major change in how politics is conducted.

(Reporting by Christine Murray)