Trump Lands in Saudi Arabia, Kicking Off Tour of Gulf States

President Trump arrived on Tuesday morning in Saudi Arabia, his first cease on a four-day tour via the Gulf, the primary main abroad journey of his second time period.

He stepped off Air Pressure One on the Royal Terminal, a particular part for V.I.P.s at King Khalid Worldwide Airport in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Mr. Trump was greeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the dominion’s de facto ruler, on a lavender-colored carpet unfurled throughout the tarmac. An honor guard was in place.

Prince Mohammed’s presence signified the particular standing that Mr. Trump enjoys with Saudi Arabia. When President Biden visited in 2022 — after saying he would make the dominion a “pariah,” earlier than realizing he wanted its assist to decrease oil costs — the crown prince snubbed him, sending a comparatively low-ranked delegation to greet him on the airport.

It’s extremely unlikely that Mr. Trump will really feel disrespected on this journey, which can even embrace stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

On his flight to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Air Pressure One was escorted for the final half hour by Saudi F-15 fighter jets, in accordance with a White Home pool report.

Within the Gulf this week, Mr. Trump will likely be centered on signing enterprise offers with the three nations, which handle trillions of {dollars} in property all over the world. He has advised advisers he desires to signal agreements value greater than $1 trillion. Offers are anticipated to incorporate investments in synthetic intelligence corporations and vitality manufacturing, in addition to multibillion-dollar arms purchases from U.S. weapons producers.

Prince Mohammed is predicted to spend a lot of Tuesday with the president, culminating in dinner. The Saudi royals are anticipated to mud off their 2017 playbook for wooing Mr. Trump. Throughout that journey — his first as president — a multistory picture of Mr. Trump’s face was projected onto the facade of the Ritz-Carlton resort in Riyadh.

The president is scheduled to talk on Tuesday afternoon at an funding discussion board hosted by the Saudi authorities. The White Home crypto czar, David Sacks, and different American enterprise leaders — together with the chief executives of IBM, BlackRock, Citigroup, Palantir and Qualcomm, a semiconductor firm — are anticipated to attend.

Prince Mohammed has already pledged to speculate $600 billion in america over the subsequent 4 years, a quantity that economists say is extremely unlikely to materialize as Saudi Arabia grapples with a money crunch. The Emiratis have pledged $1.4 trillion in U.S. funding over 10 years.

Mr. Trump plans to journey on Wednesday to Qatar and on Thursday to the Emirates, the place he’s anticipated to obtain equally lavish hospitality.

His journey to the three Gulf nations has been underneath intense scrutiny as a result of it neatly tracks with the monetary pursuits of his household. The Trump household has six pending offers with a majority-Saudi-owned actual property agency, a cryptocurrency cope with an affiliate of the federal government of the United Arab Emirates, and a brand new golf and luxurious villa venture backed by the federal government of Qatar.

The Trump administration can also be poised to simply accept a luxurious Boeing 747-8 as a donation from the Qatari royal household. Mr. Trump has requested that the jet be upgraded to function Air Pressure One whereas he waits for Boeing to ship long-overdue presidential planes.

The Qatari jet might find yourself being the most important international reward ever acquired by the U.S. authorities. The plan underneath dialogue raises substantial moral points, particularly since Mr. Trump might use the $400 million jet after leaving workplace. He has mentioned that he intends to obtain it as a donation to his presidential library.

Pressed by reporters on Monday concerning the association, Mr. Trump insisted that he wouldn’t use the airplane after his presidency and recommended that it could be retired as an exhibit in his library.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.