Trump’s first foreign trip: 'High stakes at each stop'

The president — and almost all his senior advisers — leave on Friday for a visit to five countries across the Mideast and Europe.

It's "a startlingly ambitious excursion for a president who dislikes travel and has displayed a shaky grasp of foreign affairs,” says The Associated Press.

Trump begins his trip in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before heading to Israel and then on to the Vatican. He'll go to Brussels for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit and end the trip in Sicily at a Group of 7 meeting.

Trump’s advisers acknowledge they're "concerned about his off-script eruptions, his tendency to be swayed by flattery and the possibility that foreign leaders may present him with situations he does not know how to handle,” says The New York Times. "They worry he will accidentally commit the United States to something unexpected, and they have tried to caution him about various scenarios.”

"He's all over the place, and that, I think, makes people nervous," says Daniel Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel for President George W. Bush. But when foreign leaders are "nervous in this situation, that's not a bad thing, necessarily.”

Officials say the message is “unity,” as Trump visits the birthplace of Islam, the Jewish homeland and the Vatican.

In Saudi Arabia, the president's most substantial moment is expected to come during a lunch meeting with dozens of leaders from across the Muslim world. Trump will deliver what his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, describes as an "inspiring yet direct" speech on the need to confront radical ideology, and will express his hopes for a "peaceful vision of Islam to dominate across the world.”

In Israel, Trump will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid new tensions. Israel "was in an uproar” earlier this week after U.S. officials confirmed Trump shared highly classified intelligence about the Islamic State group with senior Russian officials, says AP. The information, about an Islamic State threat related to the use of laptops on aircraft, came from Israel and there were concerns a valuable Israeli asset could be in danger.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis has told reporters, "I will say what I think and he will say what he thinks. But I have never wanted to make a judgment without first listening to the person.”

Trump may be the only presidential candidate in history to have sparred with a pope during a campaign. As he sought the GOP nomination, Trump described Pope Francis' rebuke of his proposal to build a border wall as "disgraceful."

The NATO meeting in Brussels will give Trump a direct opportunity to demand more from the 28-member coalition he signaled a willingness to abandon as a candidate.

Key officials of the G-7 Western economic powers "are unsettled by Trump’s unpredictability and his willingness to cheer on nationalist sentiment,” says AP.

National Security Adviser McMaster will be along for the entire trip, and Secretary of State Tillerson will travel with Trump through the final stop in Sicily for the G-7 conference, says Politico.

Son-in-law Jared Kushner, daughter Ivanka Trump, chief strategist Steve Bannon, chief of staff Reince Priebus, economic adviser Gary Cohn, deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, policy adviser Stephen Miller and press secretary Sean Spicer all will be along on major chunks of the trip, Politico says.

Also traveling with the president: strategic communications director Hope Hicks, deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders and National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton.

Counselor Kellyanne Conway and communications director Michael Dubke will be staying in Washington, Politico says.