Opening First Foreign Trip, Donald Trump Tries to Leave Crisis Behindbr By PETER BAKERMAY 19, 2017br WASHINGTON — President Trump embarked on Friday on his first foreign mission since taking office, beginning a challenging nine-day, multistop, multifaceted journey to the Middle Eastbr and Europe and leaving behind a capital consumed by investigations and intrigue.br Mara Rudman said that The president must be able to compartmentalize to survive the rigors of the job,br "Will be strongly protecting American interests — that’s what I like to do!" Traveling with him were his wife, Melania Trump,br and his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well aides including Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, and Gary Cohn, the national economics adviser.br "He could be disappointed, he could be outraged for a few minutes,br and then he could click it off and go into Middle East peace negotiations." Whether Mr. Trump can do the same will be a test for a president not known for his message discipline.br An inaugural foreign trip would have been daunting for a diplomatic novice under any circumstances, given the panoply of complicated issuesbr that will confront Mr. Trump, including terrorism, religion, economics, Middle East peace, the war in Afghanistan, the future of NATO and Russian aggression.br " Mr. Lockhart said.