Trump, Welcoming Egypt’s Sisi, Says ‘We Agree on So Many Things’

Focus in relationship with Cairo shifts toward security matters

The visit appeared to go well for the Egyptian leader: He received coveted photos posing with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office and walking down the White House colonnade, while neither Mr. Trump nor White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made any public mention of Egypt’s spotty human rights record.

“The president recognizes…that’s best discussed privately,” Mr. Spicer said. “I’m not going to get into what they discussed privately. But I will tell you we understand the concern and I think those are the kinds of things that I think progress is made privately.”

 .. “He has longed for a big hug from Washington as a sign of his broadening international legitimacy and he got that today,” said Eric Trager, an Egypt expert at The Washington Institute.
.. Experts and former officials say the human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated over the past several years.
.. “We are building up our military to a level that will be the highest, probably the highest that we’ve ever had.” Mr. Trump said.
.. Egypt is one of the largest recipients of U.S. military and foreign aid, getting about $1.5 billion a year. The Trump administration’s budget blueprint doesn’t guarantee aid to Egypt, and State Department officials have said aid to every country, except Israel, is under review.
.. Mr. Sisi won an election in 2014, several months after the military, then under his command, led a coup to oust Egypt’s first freely elected leader, President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Where’s My Mercedes? Egypt’s Financial Crisis Hits the Rich

Wealthy Egyptians were among President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s most ardent supporters after he seized power in 2013, favoring stability and a harsh crackdown on Islamists, even at the cost of civil liberties. But that loyalty is being tested now, as Egypt’s severe shortage of foreign currency cripples businesses, impedes luxury imports and crimps their lifestyles. And that has prompted a tide of unusually sharp criticism of Mr. Sisi.

.. Mr. Sisi is using what scarce resources he has mainly to help the poor — and the seven million people on the state’s payroll — by propping up the value of Egypt’s currency.

.. “No class or demographic is happy now, from Alexandria to Upper Egypt. Sisi isn’t satisfying anyone.”

.. The country’s tourism minister says that the slump has cost Egypt $1.3 billion in revenue since then, and that the number of visitors to the country was down 44 percent in January.

.. Egypt’s Gulf allies, like Saudi Arabia, used to give the country generous aid — some $30 billion in the first two years of Mr. Sisi’s rule — but since last summer that has slowed to a trickle.

.. General Motors has a car plant in Egypt, but it had to temporarily halt production recently because it could not get the parts it needed. Foreign airlines have threatened to curtail flights to Egypt because of rules blocking them from repatriating profits. For a time, British Airways stopped selling tickets in Egyptian currency.

.. Still, there remain plenty of Egyptians, rich and poor, who continue to see Mr. Sisi as a bulwark against the instability that has roiled other countries in the region.