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human
CMV: Trumps speech in the middle east should be praised, even if you're a liberal.

I'm no Trump supporter, and I believe it would be best if he gets impeached, however, I also believe we should give credit where credit is due.

Villifying Trump when he does something well (r/politics) is as bad as glorifying him when he does something poorly (r/T_D).

In his speech, he basically said (paraphrasing), that it doesn't matter what America believes in or what the Middle East nations believe in, only working towards their shared interests should matter. Taking a more aggressive stance against extremism is in everyone's best interest. 

This was in stark contrast to past approaches of preaching American values to people of the Middle East.

I think it's a step in the right direction not to go there with a holier than thou approach and instead say that our number 1 priority is simply to reduce extremism.

Whether giving SA guns toward that end was a good idea or not is a different story, but I'm focusing on the speech.

Some mention the speech was hypocritical since Trump slammed Islamists in the past, but criticizing him for not doing the wrong thing as you expected him to is weird.  Changing one's mind or actions towards something better is not a bad thing.

Edit: adding Trump quote:

 “We are not here to lecture,” he said. “We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership — based on shared interests and values — to pursue a better future for us all.”

Edit 2: Gave a delta to Sayakai who pointed out Trump singled out Iran later in the speech (apparently not covered by American sources), which considering that sectarian lines don't follow national lines, makes the whole speech contradictory and counterproductive.
gpt
It would've been a good speech if he'd stopped about two thirds in. But he didn't - instead of focusing on a bipartisan anti-terror approach, he then drove the focus of the speech towards the political situation between countries. Opposition against Iran (and Syria) may well have its place, but that place should not be during this speech, especially not in this matter. Dumping the responsbility for terror on Iran, when so many countries had and have their hand in it (among them Saudi Arabia itself), doesn't do the topic justice at all. He claims that he wants unity, that the divide between Sunni and Shia shouldn't matter, and then pulls out the divide and preaches opposition.

If he wanted to speak honestly against extremism and for unity against extremism, he should've left the geopolitics at home.