Trending Today: Egypt Rolls Out Red Carpet

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi's motorcade drives on a red carpet during a trip to open social housing projects in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt.

This is What’s Trending Today.

When you see a red carpet outside an event, it often means that the activities taking place inside are important.

When movie stars arrive at the opening of a new film, or attend an awards ceremony, they walk on a red carpet.

As they enter, they stop for photographers or to answer questions from reporters.

Sometimes political leaders are given a chance to walk on a red carpet when they arrive at an important event.

In English, if you are getting “the red carpet treatment,” it means you are being treated well.

But Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took the red carpet treatment to the extreme last Saturday. And people are talking about it on social media.

One writer for Buzzfeed says Sisi “does things high-end or not at all.”

The Egyptian government “rolled out” a four-kilometer-long red carpet for the last leg of Sisi’s visit to a public housing project outside Cairo.

One Egyptian made an estimate of how much the carpet might have cost. He thought it probably covered 32,000 square meters, which would have cost about $190,000.

An Egyptian military general went on television to explain that the government was using existing carpets, and the government did not purchase the material.

But even still, people enjoyed poking fun at the outlandish display.

Most people made the point that Sisi was making a speech about the need for all Egyptians to cut costs while using a very high-priced-looking red carpet.

And that’s What's Trending Today.

I’m Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Who do you think of Egypt’s massive red carpet? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

Words in This Story

carpet – n. a heavy fabric floor covering

celebrity – n. a famous person

outlandish – adj. very strange or unusual

poke fun – v. to make a joke about something