Driving the conversation about Egypt in the global press today: El Sisi’s meetings Clinton, Trump in New York. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s sit-downs with the two US presidential candidates dominated coverage of Egypt overnight and look likely to set the tone for coverage for today.

Don’t expect a lot of positive coverage. The pool of US reporters chosen to cover the meeting between El Sisi and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton are complaining of having been mistreated by Egyptian security officers, Politico reports: “Reporters traveling with Hillary Clinton got a taste of the Egyptian security state on Monday — and they didn’t much care for it. The Democratic presidential candidate was meeting Monday evening in New York City with Egypt’s increasingly authoritarian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,” the politics site said. The story goes on to tick off exactly the type of petty insults that drive journalists mad.

Politico also delivers this morning “Trump, Clinton blasted for meeting Egypt’s strongman leader,” picking up on a letter signed by think-tank types including Michele Dunne (Carnegie) and Elliott Abrams (CFR), and follows this up with “Trump praises autocratic Egyptian leader.”

Why do we care what Politico thinks? Politico is the insider’s guide to Washington. DC staffers and politicians alike want to see positive coverage of their principal and their issues in the Journal, the Post, the Times, but Politico is “their” publication. Negative coverage of Egypt there will have a spillover effect anytime Egypt (or our friends) ask for anything on the Hill, up to and including the reception that will be accorded to readers who participate in AmCham’s Door Knock Mission.

Trump pledges to be a “loyal friend” to Egypt: El Sisi met Trump at 3:25am CLT (9:25pm in New York). The Republican candidate was accompanied by Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency), two campaign advisors, the Associated Press reports. Trump’s campaign told the reporters the nominee told El Sisi that he “has high regard for peace-loving Muslims” and that under a Trump White House, the US would be “a loyal friend to Egypt, not simply an ally.” Trump said the two countries share a “common enemy [in] radical Islamic terrorism.” A full readout on the meeting is here on the Trump campaign website.

A Trump campaign advisor said the Republican candidate praised El Sisi’s tough stance on fighting terrorism in Egypt and region, and has reportedly promised to push for legislation to label the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Advisor Walid Phares’ was speaking with Al Masry Al Youm.

Clinton pushes for the release of Aya Hijazi and her husband: CNN has a solid look at how the two meetings feed into the US presidential race — and notes that Clinton used the meeting with El Sisi to raise the case of Aya Hijazi, who as we have previously noted “has been imprisoned in Egypt since 2014 after operating a non-profit in the country.” The case has been the subject of on-again, off-again coverage in the US media (including a column in the Washington Post), and Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently tweeted images of himself meeting with Hijazi’s family (here and here) with the note “US urges Egyptian government to drop charges & release Aya from prison. Helping children on street worthy of celebration, not incarceration.” Members of Congress are now joining the chorus demanding the release of Hijazi and her husband.

Meanwhile: The Egyptian Foreign Ministry denounced a statement by the White House calling on Egypt to drop all charges Hejazi, a dual American-Egyptian national, the MFA spokesman said in a statement. Hegazy and her husband have been in pretrial detention since May 2014 on accusations of [redacted] abuse of homeless children they had taken into their Belady Foundation for Street Children, as well as inciting them to protest against the government.

Clinton advisor: No imminent change in US policy on Egypt. A Clinton advisor told CNN (same story as above) that “the meeting on Monday did not augur any kind of policy change towards Egypt” and noted that “Egypt is facing its own terror threats and would be critical to any renewed effort at Israeli-Palestinian peace.” The caveat: “There are a lot of things that the Sisi government is doing that are concerning.”

Meanwhile: Eric Trager writes for the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog on “How Egyptians’ Conspiracy Theories About Clinton Explain Trump’s Appeal to Them” — a piece that largely picks up where we left off yesterday morning.