From cookies to burgers to dates, it’s been gimmicks galore for Egyptians incessantly searching for new ways to shower their army leader with compliments. Egypt’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has emerged as one of the most powerful people in the country after he deposed Islamist President Mohammad Mursi on July 3, sparking nationalist fervor and widespread resentment of the Islamists.

President Obama, deploring the military-led Egyptian government’s deadly crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters there, said on Thursday that the United States would pull out of scheduled joint military exercises with the Egyptian Army. “While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual while civilians are being killed in the streets,” Mr. Obama said in remarks delivered from his rented vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the man at the center of the military takeover in Egypt, is the latest in a series of American-trained foreign officers to oust a civilian government. Just seven years ago, he was a student at the Army War College in rural Pennsylvania. At a recent military graduation ceremony in Alexandria, Egypt, el-Sissi talked about his ouster of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on July 3.