AKIPRESS.COM - Donald Trump will ask Americans Monday to trust him on his new Afghanistan strategy, exercising a president's most somber duty, a decision on waging war, at a time when his own political standing is deeply compromised, CNN reported.

Trump will make his first prime-time broadcast to the nation as president at 9 p.m. ET to unveil his new plan, and a potential escalation of the nation's longest war, after a lengthy period of deliberations that carved deep splits within his administration.

The speech will test the President's capacity to convince Americans that he has settled on the right course of action on a major national security issue, and to unify the nation around it, despite his own depleted approval ratings and behavior that has alienated many voters in his first seven months in office.

Trump's first major national security address will also begin to show whether the credibility that the President has squandered, with his provocative rhetoric and frequent resort to falsehoods, will hamper his capacity to lead.

Monday's address, from Fort Myer, in Arlington, Virginia, represents a chance for Trump to leverage the symbolism of his office to stabilize a presidency that has threatened to spin out of control over the last two weeks.