The president announced the planned change in U.S. policy during a speech at a Saudi investment forum at the start of the first major international trip of his second term. His meeting with Syria’s new leader will take place Wednesday.
The president announced the planned change in U.S. policy during a speech at a Saudi investment forum at the start of the first major international trip of his second term. His meeting with Syria’s new leader will take place Wednesday. The president announced the planned change in U.S. policy during a speech at a Saudi investment forum at the start of the first major international trip of his second term. His meeting with Syria’s new leader will take place Wednesday.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia4:04 p.m. May 13
Live Updates: Trump Gets Lavish Welcome in Saudi Arabia as He Kicks Off Gulf Tour
The president, who will also visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, is making the first major international trip of his second term. He has told advisers that he wants to sign deals worth more than $1 trillion.
Jonathan SwanLuke Broadwater and Vivian Nereim
Reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia gave President Trump a lavish welcome on Tuesday, rolling out an honor guard, a team of Arabian horses and a delegation of royals and business leaders to kick off the president’s four-day tour through the Gulf, the first major overseas trip of his second term.
Mr. Trump stepped off Air Force One at the Royal Terminal, a special section for V.I.P.s at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, greeted him on a lavender carpet before the two men sat down in navy-and-gold armchairs in an opulent, sunlit building with marble columns.
Mr. Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, among other top members of his administration. Some of America’s biggest business leaders were also on hand to attend an investment forum hosted by the Saudi government where Mr. Trump was due to speak, including Elon Musk and the chief executives of IBM, BlackRock, Citigroup, Palantir and Nvidia, among others.
The trip includes stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and Mr. Trump will be focused on signing business deals with the three countries. He has told advisers he wants to sign agreements worth more than $1 trillion. Deals are expected to include investments in artificial intelligence companies and energy production, as well as multibillion-dollar arms purchases from U.S. weapons manufacturers.
Prince Mohammed’s presence signified the special status that Mr. Trump enjoys with Saudi Arabia. When President Biden visited in 2022 — he vowed to make the kingdom a “pariah,” before realizing he needed its help to lower oil prices — the crown prince snubbed him, sending a relatively low-ranked delegation to greet him at the airport.
Here’s what else to know:
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Family interests: The president’s trip neatly tracks with the financial interests of his family, which has pending deals with a majority-Saudi-owned real estate firm, a cryptocurrency deal with an affiliate of the government of the United Arab Emirates, and a new golf and luxury villa project backed by the government of Qatar.
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Qatari gift: The Trump administration is also poised to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane as a donation from Qatar’s royal family in what could be the biggest foreign gift ever received by the U.S. government. Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, is expected to announce on Tuesday that he intends to put a hold on Mr. Trump’s appointees to the Justice Department until he gets more information about the president’s plans to accept the jet.
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Ukraine talks: Mr. Trump has said that he would consider joining a potential meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia in this week in Turkey to discuss a peace deal. His presence would raise the stakes as Moscow defies European leaders’ calls for a cease-fire.
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Oil and an orb: Past visits by U.S. presidents to Saudi Arabia have produced some memorable — and odd — moments.
Trump again encouraged Saudi Arabia to increase its investment in the United States beyond the $600 billion over four years already pledged by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. While sitting with the crown prince, Trump asked for that number to be raised to $1 trillion, despite the fact that economists say the kingdom does not have such financial resources available. “We have the biggest business leaders in the world here,” Trump said. “They’re going to walk away with a lot of checks.”
Inside the royal court, Trump called the crown prince a friend and said the pair had developed a good relationship, according to the White House pool report. “I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said.
Watch Trump’s Arrival in Saudi Arabia
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President Trump has said he would consider joining a potential meeting between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine this week to discuss a peace deal.
Mr. Trump, who began a four-day tour through the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, said he may add a stop and attend the proposed direct talks in Istanbul on Thursday.
“I was thinking about actually flying over there,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a White House news conference on Monday.
“There’s a possibility of it, I guess,” Mr. Trump said, adding that he would do so “if I thought it would be helpful.”
Mr. Trump’s presence at the meeting would raise the stakes as Kyiv aims to realign an increasingly hostile relationship with Mr. Trump, while an emboldened Mr. Putin defies calls for a cease-fire from European leaders.
“Of course, all of us in Ukraine would like President Trump to be there with us — at this meeting in Turkey,” Mr. Zelensky said in a statement on Monday night. “This is the right idea.”
On Sunday, Mr. Putin proposed the direct talks, as he rebuffed pressure from European leaders to accept an unconditional 30-day cease-fire. In an unusual late-night statement, Mr. Putin said Russia was “prepared for serious negotiations with Ukraine” and “without any preconditions.”
The Kremlin has not yet responded to Mr. Trump’s mention of the meeting.
Joining President Trump and top U.S. and Saudi officials for lunch in Riyadh on Tuesday are dozens of business leaders from some of America’s largest companies.
The executives — from tech firms, banks, consumer groups and other industries, including representatives of four of the 10 biggest U.S. companies by market value — may be there to pitch for business from deep-pocketed Saudi investors, businesses and government departments. Their companies are also dealing with the tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump on U.S. trading partners, so the trip is an opportunity to lobby top Trump officials, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on trade policy.
Saudi Arabia has emerged as one of the world’s largest investors in artificial intelligence, an effort to diversify the oil-rich nation’s economy and give it influence over one of the hottest sectors in the business world. Notable A.I. players at the lunch include Sam Altman, the chief executive of ChatGPT parent OpenAI; Jensen Huang, the leader of the advanced chipmaker Nvidia; Ruth Porat, the chief investment officer of Alphabet, Google’s parent company; and Andy Jassy, the chief of Amazon, which is a major provider of cloud-computing services.
There is also Elon Musk, who, in addition to overseeing Mr. Trump’s effort to slash the size of the federal government, also runs Tesla, SpaceX and his own A.I. company called xAI, which is in talks for new financing that could value the firm at as much as $120 billion.
The vast sums of money that Saudi Arabia is spending on technology, infrastructure and other priorities have made the country a popular destination for financial executives seeking to advise the kingdom and its companies. Top financial leaders at the lunch include Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone, Larry Fink of BlackRock and Jane Fraser of Citigroup.
Here are some of the business executives and other guests at the lunch, according to a list provided by the White House:
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Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX
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Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group
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Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock
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Arvind Krishna, chairman and chief executive of IBM
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Jane Fraser, chief executive of Citigroup
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Kelly Ortberg, chief executive of Boeing
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Ruth Porat, chief investment officer of Google
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Andy Jassy, chief executive of Amazon
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Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI
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Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia
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Alex Karp, chief executive of Palantir
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Jeff Miller, chief executive of Halliburton
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Travis Kalanick, former chief executive of Uber and founder of Cloud Kitchens
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Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman
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James Quincey, chief executive of Coca-Cola
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Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber
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Francis Suarez, mayor of Miami
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Reid Hoffman, executive chairman of LinkedIn
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Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA
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Patrick Soon-Shiong, executive chairman of Immunity Bio and owner of The Los Angeles Times
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American presidents have been visiting Saudi Arabia for decades, and the trips have often produced memorable moments — some dramatic, others downright odd.
As President Trump returns to Saudi Arabia, here is a look back at four moments from past presidential trips to visit leaders of the oil-rich Gulf state.
2022: The Biden Fist Bump
The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia appeared to be wilting before President Joseph R. Biden Jr. visited Jeddah in 2022.
Mr. Biden, as a candidate in 2019, had vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah” over the killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the C.I.A. said had been ordered by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
But as Mr. Biden worked in 2022 to manage oil prices, which spiked after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the president took a different tack. Arriving at the Royal Palace, Mr. Biden, grinning slightly, gave the crown prince a fist bump as a bank of cameras rolled.
The Saudi government quickly posted an image of the fist bump on social media. Mr. Biden later told reporters that he had privately confronted Prince Mohammed about the killing, and that the prince “basically said that he was not personally responsible for it.”
Back in Washington, Mr. Biden became impatient when pressed on the fist bump. “Why don’t you guys talk about something that matters?” he chided a reporter.
Within months, Mr. Biden acknowledged that the trip had not produced the surge in Saudi oil production that he had sought.
2017: Trump and the Orb
It looked like something from a children’s movie.
During a visit to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, early in his first term, Mr. Trump found himself laying hands on a glowing white orb.
Beside him, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt also placed their hands on the sphere. An image of the men touching the orb — with the first lady, Melania Trump, looking on — circulated widely on social media, with memes multiplying in short order.
One meme likened the image to that of Saruman, the “Lord of the Rings” villain, tapping into a seeing stone.
But the orb in Riyadh was not, it turned out, magical.
The sphere was a translucent globe, apparently decorative, at a facility filled with computer terminals and devoted to combating extremist ideology.
1974: Nixon Says, ‘We Need Wisdom’
President Richard M. Nixon met a warm reception in Jeddah during a five-nation sweep through the Middle East in the spring of 1974.
Nixon arrived hoping to encourage the country to help reduce oil prices, according to passages of his memoirs published by the Richard Nixon Foundation.
But he also came with another goal — pushing Saudi Arabia to use its considerable regional influence to push for peace in the Middle East.
In remarks at the State Palace, he emphasized to his hosts that he did not come just to win cheaper oil.
“We can use oil, but we need more, something far more than oil,” the president said. “We need wisdom.”
1945: Roosevelt Gives a Wheelchair
Though he did not travel to Saudi soil, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with the founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz al-Saud, on a U.S. warship in the Great Bitter Lake, part of the Suez Canal in Egypt.
Roosevelt charmed the king, who struggled to walk, by presenting him with the gift of a wheelchair.
Earlier this morning, Saudi fighter jets escorted Air Force One through the kingdom’s airspace as the plane approached its destination.
The billionaire medical entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of The Los Angeles Times, is now chatting with Trump and the crown prince. Soon-Shiong places his hand on the president’s arm as he talks.
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Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, intends on Tuesday to put a hold on all Justice Department political appointees awaiting Senate confirmation until he gets more information on plans by President Trump to accept a luxury airliner from Qatar.
Mr. Schumer’s expected announcement of his blockade of administration nominees comes after he and other Senate Democrats assailed Mr. Trump on Monday for his decision to accept the jet, which is estimated to be worth as much as $500 million and would serve as Air Force One.
“This is not just naked corruption,” Mr. Schumer plans to say, according to remarks prepared for a Senate floor speech. “It is also a grave national security threat.”
In the speech, Mr. Schumer is expected to call for the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act Unit to report on any activities by Qatari agents in the United States that could benefit the president or any of his family’s businesses. The minority leader also plans to demand information from the administration about the jet itself, such as whether it comes with security enhancements or whether they must be provided by the United States. And he wants information about what the jet means for future presidential planes that the government has already agreed to buy from Boeing.
Among Mr. Schumer’s requests is that Attorney General Pam Bondi, who evidently signed off on the gift, testify before Congress on why receiving such an extravagant item from a foreign entity would not violate the Constitutional prohibition on presidential gifts unless approved by Congress or allowed by other ethics laws.
“Until the American people learn the truth about this deal, I will do my part to block the galling and truly breathtaking politicization at the Department of Justice,” Mr. Schumer intends to say.
According to Mr. Schumer’s office, three Justice Department nominees are awaiting floor votes, but his hold could ultimately be extended to dozens more, including nominees for U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal.
Putting a hold on a nominee does not mean they cannot eventually be confirmed, given that Republicans control the Senate. But it does require more floor time to conduct the required votes to overcome the objections. Democrats are already slow-walking Trump nominees, a fact noted on Monday by Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican majority leader.
In remarks on the floor, Mr. Thune pointed to continuing Democratic objections to virtually every Trump nominee and urged Democrats to cooperate and allow some of the president’s choices to be considered in batches. He said, though, that Republicans would continue to confirm administration nominees even if Democrats did not relent. That could mean late-night or weekend votes or lost recess days to eliminate any backlog.
“If we have to do this the hard way, we will,” Mr. Thune said. “We’re going to get the president’s team in place.”
The crown prince, standing beside Trump inside the royal court, is receiving a long line of Trump aides for handshakes. Among those he greeted were Elon Musk, the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, the White House crypto czar David Sacks and Stephen Miller, who has overseen the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
The presidential limousine, nicknamed The Beast, was escorted by riders on Arabian horses as it drove to the royal court.
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Trump again encouraged Saudi Arabia to increase its investment in the United States beyond the $600 billion over four years already pledged by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Sitting next to the crown prince, Trump asked for that number to be raised to $1 trillion, even though economists say the kingdom does not have such financial resources available. “We have the biggest business leaders in the world here,” Trump said. “They’re going to walk away with a lot of checks.”
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, was in the greeting party that met President Trump at the airport in Riyadh, according to a White House pool report. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund has been a significant source of cash for the Trump family. The fund invested $2 billion in Jared Kushner’s investment company, at the direction of the crown prince. The fund also backs the LIV Golf circuit, which holds its tournaments at Trump’s golf courses.
Earlier on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has joined President Trump in Riyadh, spoke about the U.S.-China agreement to temporarily reduce steep tariffs on each other’s products. He mostly echoed his comments from Monday after the two sides held trade talks in Geneva. “After this weekend we have a mechanism to avoid escalation like we had before,” Bessent said. He emphasized that both sides “do not want a generalized decoupling between the two largest economies in the world,” but that the United States would seek to become more self-sufficient in strategic industries such as medicine and semiconductors.