President. On the campaign trail, trump criticized saudi arabia often for policies on gays and women and possible involvement in 9 11. As we await the speech, we start today by asking can President Trump reset his image with the muslim world . Can he shift from his past rhetoric about islam . Joining me now j retired colonel jack jacobs, steve clemmons, and Jonathan Allen. Thank you all for being with me. Good morning. Let me go to you, colonel jaco jacobs. Its a trip that is set to try and call for unity and against terrorism. And then the first thing he does is a big arms deal with saudi arabia. I mean, we see the pomp and ceremony, a warm reception that they did not give president obama, and then an arms deal. How do you read this . Well, the its no change from the way its been for many administrations. Weve been close to saudi arabia for a long, long time. And far away from its principle adversary, iran, certainly since 1979. Weve been selling arms to them for a long time. I remember being in various schools in the army basic, a general staff and so on, and we had Saudi Exchange officers in our classes, and just about all of the Saudi Air Force has been trained by the United States. The longtime ambassador saudi ambassador to the United States, prince bandar was educated in the United States and learned to fly here. So weve had a very close relationship with these guys for a long time. And the weve thrown our lot in with the saudis and against iran and have been doing so for decades. Jonathan, what im going after here is despite all of this rhetoric during the campaign of we need to do things differently, and condemning the saudis even by name, then candidate trump saying what they were doing wrong to women, saying what they were doing wrong to gays. Even saying and inferring that they may have been involved in dmec 9 11, and hes considering selling arms to them as weve done all along. No change here. No real exit from what was already done. In fact, continuation with a warm embrace, almost like lets continue the tradition of arms deal and other things with the saudis, and well even give you a kiss at the airport. Well, a medal will always help improve relations. I think colonel jacobs is right. Look at the debates from the early 80s about providing weapons to saudi arabia and joe biden being concerned about them falling into the wrong hands, potentially. I think that nobody in middle east is going to be under the impression that donald trump didnt mean anything that he said on the campaign trail, but to the exthe teent that hes leg in office about the necessity to keep alliances strong, particularly those w wit countries that are basically helping you a lot of ways. To the exte that hes learning in office, i think most people in the Foreign Policy establishment would say thats a good thing. Let me go here. Heres President Trump earlier today talking about relationship with saudi arabia. Weve been friends for a long time. And the relationship is extremely good. We have some very serious discussions right now going on. And one of the things that we will discuss is the purchase of lots of beautiful military equipment, because nobody makes it like the United States. So he talks about the arms deal, steve. Talks about a great relationship which contrast with his rhetoric during the campaign, but jonathan says no one in the middle east believed his rhetoric or believed he meant what he said. How will it play back in the United States if at all . Will it play to his core constituents who may have believed him, and how will this continued relationship with saudi arabia play when clearly their policies with gays and women are something that we seriously question in this country at least most americans . Well, i think to quote donald trump when he commented on health care, its going to be complicated for him. This is a defining trip, a defining moment for donald trump. This is the first country he visited outside the United States during his president ial tenure. It will long be referred to as what messages was he sending . There seem to be two elements. One is the arms deal which donald trump has linked to jobs. And also the oil and Infrastructure Investment deals that were part of a package of things that were announced and referred to yesterday by rex tillerson, of course, the former ceo of exxon mobile. Youll have the fossil fuel crowd in america. Youll have some on the jobs side tied to this. Its a cynical side, if you will. Not necessarily the kind of industries, information industry were talking act, but that will be an element of it. I think broadly in terms of the human rights issues, an element where weve seen excerpts of the speech donald trump is going to give today. In the speech he says were not here to lecture you, to tell you how to live and what to do. Well have a principled realism in our approach. I find that are remarkable approach. We do have concerns about human rights. Hes been meeting leaders of states where they engage in muslim beheadings. The suppression of minorities and the suppression of democratic activists and various other groups inside these countries. And were not saying anything about those. Donald trump is basically ak isnt that a very serious questionable disay of havior, to come out and say were not going to lecture you, were not going to talk about your misogyny, beheading people, as steve referred to, your dealing with political opposition, your being autocrats and in many ways leaning toward, if not, in fact, death spots. Were not going to talk about that, but were going to do business with you, because we want to make sure that we all go against some of the forces that all of us disagree must be opposed, but were willing to overlook the fact that in many cases you behave just as badly as some of the elements, not all, but some of the elements that we are united against . Isnt that really the height of hypocrisy, and setting a different standard in how we deal with International Partners . It certainly is a major break from the Obama Administration where human rights were really part of the basket or one of the baskets of things that american diplomats talked about for years. I think its a break from the george w. Bush administration where human rights was discussed and often a priority. Depending on the country that youre dealing with, and the politics on the ground. At the same time, the its not terribly shocking. The policy regardless of the rhetoric has been pretty consistent with saudi arabia. I think donald trump on the campaign trail talked about human rights because he felt like there was an opportunity to hit Hillary Clinton back a little bit on the campaign trail, and try to point out where she had relationships in countries with bad humanitarian rights records, rather than him actually believing in that, and certainly when business interests collide with human rights abuses, Donald Trumps past suggests that he will always favor business over Holding People responsible for human rights abuses. Colonel, im coming to you. I want to ask steve this before i let him go. You know, were waiting. Well hear him speak. Hes going from some of what has been released, hoos going to address the bar barrism of isis, and others. But it just seems to me to be a little less than what we should want to say, yeah, i talked about bigotry. I talked about misogyny. I talked about homo phobia, but wink, wink, everybody knew i was kidding. Everybody knew i was teasing. What kind of moral authority does that give the United States as he goes on this socalled reset mission . Well, hes a very complicated messenger for this message. It also implies that many of these states have not been engaged in trying to deal with both domestic sources of terrorism within their own countries and then fighting it in places like iraq and syria. These countries have a lot of complexities in them. Theyre not all on the same page with each other. Donald trump who has been a champion of islamaphobia during his campaign is a very flawed messenger to go and basically counsel these states on what to do. Another element which we have not been talking openly about is saudi arabia and the United States are not on the same side of things when it comes to who were fund and supporting inside syria. The saudis have been supporting nefarious players that mak it uncomfortae. I think a lot of this is being papered over as somehow if we were all good and fought barbaric elements, all the differences would disappear. Its a platitude that will evaporate and disappear quickly after he departs, i think. Thank you. Coming up, well go life the to saudi arabia to hear more about the trip and talk to an expert in saudi matters. Will the muslim world allow President Trump to lecture them on terrorism . Well be right back. This is politicsnation on msnbc. Anything, text me. Anything, text me. Do you play . Use the chase mobile app to send money in just a tap, to friends at more banks then ever before. Ak we us. Ak we esz. Ak we esz. Ak we esz. Acquiescence. Acquiesce sense. Ak wes sense. Hs. And otezlas prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Otezla may increase the risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Ask your dermatologist about otezla today. Otezla. Show more of you. We are back. Lets go to saudi arabia where Hallie Jackson is traveling with the president. In less than an hour, President Trump is set to deliver a speech to the muslim world. What do we know about it . Yeah. This is going to be really the highlight, sort of the main event of his trip here to saudi arabia over the last couple of days. We expect the president to begin speaking to this conference of leaders in the middle east in probably the next hour or so. Well be bringing it to you live on msnbc when it happens. This is significant. Its Something White house aides have been talking about. The president is not going to, at least in the prepared excerpts that the white house just released to us, talk about something we heard him say a lot which is radical islamic terrorism, the phrase talking about the spes fis thety of using that language. Instead, hes going to say the muslim world needs to essentially unite against extremism and confront the crisis of islamist extremism and the groups it inspires. It may seem like semantics, but it could represent the softening of language from President Trump repeatedly but prior during his campaign as well. This speech, according to Senior Administration officials, is intended the to basically bring together the muslim world against isis. The president here said the in the next couple of weeks, he wants to hold a News Conference with the members of the media to talk about theight against isis. Well see how its received b folks here in saudi arabia. This is a president who has made clear his position on, again, radical islamic terrorism. So the phrasing that he will use today will be important. Thank you. Let me ask you keep us updated. Thank you very much. So the president reportedly looking to reset relations with the muslim world. How will he do that . To answer that, im joined by al i shahavi, and back with us, jack jacobs and Jonathan Allen. Ali, let me ask you to give us enlighten us on the the president and saudi arabia. Despite the rhetoric during the campaign where as ive mentioned a couple of times this morning, he attacked some of their policies, he really had a cordial relationship with them prior to that, and even there was some business interest. What can you shed light on for us about precampaign trump in saudi . Okay. If you can just permit me to make a comment on the previous segment. You know, president obama visited saudi arabia four times duringis presidency. Sold saudi arabia 115 million worth of arms. He would not have done that if he didnt think saudi arabia wasnt make progress in the area of human rights. President obama wasnt stupid. He could see things clearly. The big difference between saudi arabia and president obama was in his attitude to iran. Because saudi arabia found president obama to be somewhat naive inover lo overlooking nef activities around the middle east in his quest to sign i dont want to get into a debate on that. I think president obama was verbal about dealing with some of the progress he wanted to see made about human rights and about challenging that that move forward. That is totally absent so far from what were seeing in the prepared remarks of President Trump. Well, yes, but at the end of the day you have to look at what he did also. Since you raised it, lets give the whole contrast. But give me enlighten me on mr. Trump and his relationship to saudi arabia. Well, i will. There is actually a zero business relationship between President Trump and saudi arabia. Rumors came out of companies in the campaign, but then it was shown that those companies were never established in saudi arab arabia. He has no investments or hotels or anything whatsoever in saudi arabia. Whats interesting is he has pivoted strongly from where he was on the campaign. And i think you credit that to the responsibilities of the presidency, to the quality of his secretary of defense, his National Security adviser, his secretary of state. And the fact that underlying this is a 50year rationship through democratic and republican president s between saudi arabia and the United States that has been a very close, very strategic and has cooperated on every 4relevel. I think what hes doing simply confirming that despite what he said on the campaign. Well, jonathan, can you buy that . I mean, that all of a sudden he has an enlightenment and growth in less than four months as president from the kind of attacks and just about visit ree yawl that he talked about with saudi arabia. Now hes had enlightenment and his team was able to bring him there . They havent been able to bring him in any other areas of maturity in the white house. Im not sure theres been a huge epiphany, but i think obviously hes been advised and counc counselled, and it sounds like hes at least realized on a practical level that its counterproductive for him to talk the way he did on the campaign trail about people hes going to want to have alliances with. That includes the saudi government at this point, and it certainly includes a large portion of the muslim world and of the arab world. You cant go in there and be offensive to people and then ask them for help in the fight on terrorism. That said, even with the excerpts of this speech, its certainly in a different place than you would have heard in the last administration or even from george w. Bush in terms of the way that he phrases the idea of alliances between the west and the arab and muslim worlds in fighting terrorism. This is not somebody who has come to the place of what i would say is a fairly consistent at least on a rhetorical message from bush and obama. I think what im getting at is i think absolutely you cannot fight terrorism and isis and all without having alliances. But i think that what im really driving at here is that when a Hillary Clinton or barack obama did dha, he attacked them. I think a lot of the more than public needs to understand that hes doing what he attacked others for doing, and they did it, and hes doing it maybe for the right reasons, but he really took them to task for doing exactly what he appears to be inching toward doing. Yeah. I think there are two things at work here, and they were mentioned earlier. The first is that theres a perception that one acts differently overseas and the rhetoric is muchifferent when youre here domestically. And relat to that, is this notion. And its an assumption, that trumps base in the United States understands that hes got to act differently overseas. Theyve already made a commitment to him and his het rick, and it almost doesnt matter what he says when hes outside the United States, because they know excuse me one minute. Heres the president arriving at the conference in saudi arabia. Again, hell be addressing them in about an hour or so, and this is a conference that has brought together 50 islamic leaders around the middle east, and it will be a Significant Development to hear President Trump address leaders of the muslim world. Particularly in light of his past statements and present challenges around among other things, the socalled muslim ban and other things he has proposed here in the United States. He is now arriving, and will be addressing this gathering. A significant gathering. And the world will be watching to see what he will say, what he will not say, and what will be the reaction to the muslim world. Certainly no challenge, no small challenge here. Let me go back to my panel quickly. Ali, let me ask you, what is it that mr. Trump has to try to do in this speech today realistically, what can he try to achieve and what is expected . How will it be gauged by people around the world . Look, its a scripted speech, and i think the more important thing is that hes giving it. So really, irrespective of the nuances that hes going to express, i think the speech has leaked, and it looks quite balanced, and frankly, everybody that he will be addressing among the leaders agrees with him. You to fight radicalism. Saudi arabia is on t