U.S. President Donald Trump concluded his first trip abroad with an address to U.S. military personnel and their families at the Sigonella Naval Air Station on the Italian island of Sicily.
Immediately after the May 27 speech, Trump's plane left Sicily for the return trip to the United States, following a nine-day tour that took the president to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Italy, and Belgium.
In his speech, Trump said the trip had been "a home run" (Eds: a complete success). He later added that he'd had "a truly historic week."
Speaking about the just-concluded two-day summit of the Group of Seven leading world economies, Trump said it was "a tremendously productive meeting where I stregthened American bonds."
Regarding the earlier NATO summit, he said that "money is actually starting to pour into NATO from countries that would not have been doing what they're doing now had I not been elected."
It is not clear what money Trump was referring to, but Germany has pledged to increase defense spending with the target of reaching 2 percent of GDP.
Trump also said the United States was "behind NATO all the way."
The president also pledged to "defeat terrorism and protect civilization," calling terrorism "a threat, a bad threat to all of humanity."
Trump was introduced by his wife, Melania, who told the audience "my husband worked very hard on this trip and I am very proud of him."
Trump was expected to arrive back in Washington later on May 27.
