On the campaign trail, many critics of then-candidate Donald Trump worried about his rhetoric against radical Islamic terrorism and his subsequent travel ban targeting countries hosting various jihadi groups and other extremists. Trump is certainly an unprecedented global leader, and his first foreign visit was to the more moderate Muslim nation of Saudi Arabia (obviously no vanguard of human rights)–shattering the protocol of visiting Canada or Mexico first. While Trump’s strategy is yet unproven, the symbolism it represents is exactly what we need: to empower moderate, pragmatic Muslim nations. As part of Trump’s journey, he signed a new deal on behalf of the United States to establish the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC), a joint approach withSaudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates to confront new and evolving threats arising from terrorist financing. The goal is to disrupt terrorist networks including ISIS, al Qa’ida, Hizballah, Lashkar–e-Tayyiba, the Taliban, and the Haqqani Network.TFTC is meant to address a host of other transnational threats emanating throughout the Middle East, including from Iran, the Assad regime, and the situation in Yemen. Also during this foreign trip abroad at an event with Ivanka Trump, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates pledged a $100 million fund for women who own or want…
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