In an op-ed for the Daily Mail on Monday, Piers Morgan lauded President Donald Trump's trip tot he Middle East, and in particular his remarks to 55 Muslim states, to whom he told some "much-needed home truths."

Trump "could have taken the easy route with his first foreign trip," notes Morgan, "he could have flown over to friendly neighbors Canada, knocked off a few eye-pleasing photo ops with Justin Trudeau, said how much he loves maple syrup and smashed a few positive headline home runs - but nothing President Trump ever does is easy, for anybody."

And Piers meant that in a good way. Below are some highlights of his article, which can also be accessed via the link above 

Instead, he decided to jet into Saudi Arabia, the very heart of the Muslim world, and give the leaders of 55 Muslim states some much-needed home truths.

It was an extraordinary moment to watch the President of the United States stand in Riyadh’s King Abdul Aziz Conference Center and let his audience have it right between the eyes about their responsibility for tackling terror groups like ISIS.

Wow.

Yes, yes, YES.

Whatever you think of Trump, and he is currently right up there with the most divisive people in history, this was a stunningly bold and courageous thing to do.

This, remember, is a guy who’s not exactly Mr Popular in the Muslim community. Someone who many assume hates all Muslims because he wanted them banned from America.

Now he’s in a room surrounded by hundreds of the most powerful Muslims in the world and arrogantly expects them to listen to his opinion on what to do with Muslim terrorists.

Yet they did listen, intently.

And at the end of the speech, many of them applauded.

Morgan also said Trump's message "was crystal clear": that Muslims must work with us to root out and destroy terrorists, and terrorism.

Some have criticized Trump for not publicly whacking his Saudi hosts about their abysmal human rights record.

Yet think about this for a moment; imagine if Trump had indeed devoted chunks of his speech to slamming the Saudis for their undeniably grotesque treatment of women, gays and political prisoners?

THAT would have been the headline today, not his rally cry for the Muslim world to root out terrorists.

He knew exactly what he needed to say, and crucially, what NOT to say, to get the media narrative he wanted. And he got it.

The president also indicated that his ugly campaigning rhetoric about Muslims and Islam was just that: ugly campaigning rhetoric. That doesn’t excuse it, but it hopefully confines it to the dustbin of campaigning history where so much ugly rhetoric ends up.

Nobody watching this speech could possibly conclude that Trump hates all Muslims.

No, he hates Muslim terrorists. Or rather, those members of groups like ISIS who choose to hijack and twist the faith of Islam and its true meaning for their own nefarious, barbaric gain.

This week, with his impressive performance in Saudi Arabia and now Israel, Trump has shown that when he exercises self-control and plays to his strengths, he’s not just up to the job of president, he has the potential to be a genuinely transformative one.

I much prefer the latter Trump.

"This version will go a lot further to Making America Great Again than treating the Oval Office like a gossip canteen for the nation’s enemies, or pointlessly trashing the ‘fake news’ media and US intelligence agencies who’ve shown they have infinite capacity for revenge," Morgan concluded.