President Trump arrived on Tuesday morning in Saudi Arabia, his first stop on a four-day tour through the Gulf, the first major overseas trip of his second term.
He 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. Mr. Trump was greeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdomâs de facto ruler, on a lavender-colored carpet unfurled across the tarmac. An honor guard was in place.
Prince Mohammedâs presence signified the special status that Mr. Trump enjoys with Saudi Arabia. When President Biden visited in 2022 â after saying he would make the kingdom a âpariah,â before realizing he needed its help to lower oil prices â the crown prince snubbed him, sending a relatively low-ranked delegation to greet him at the airport.
It is highly unlikely that Mr. Trump will feel disrespected on this trip, which will also include stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
On his flight to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Air Force One was escorted for the last half hour by Saudi F-15 fighter jets, according to a White House pool report.
In the Gulf this week, Mr. Trump will be focused on signing business deals with the three countries, which manage trillions of dollars in assets around the world. 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 is expected to spend much of Tuesday with the president, culminating in dinner. The Saudi royals are expected to dust off their 2017 playbook for wooing Mr. Trump. During that trip â his first as president â a multistory image of Mr. Trumpâs face was projected onto the facade of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.
The president is scheduled to speak on Tuesday afternoon at an investment forum hosted by the Saudi government. The White House crypto czar, David Sacks, and other American business leaders â including the chief executives of IBM, BlackRock, Citigroup, Palantir and Qualcomm, a semiconductor company â are expected to attend.
Prince Mohammed has already pledged to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years, a number that economists say is highly unlikely to materialize as Saudi Arabia grapples with a cash crunch. The Emiratis have pledged $1.4 trillion in U.S. investment over 10 years.
Mr. Trump plans to travel on Wednesday to Qatar and on Thursday to the Emirates, where he is expected to receive similarly lavish hospitality.
His trip to the three Gulf countries has been under intense scrutiny because it neatly tracks with the financial interests of his family. The Trump family has six 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.
The Trump administration is also poised to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 as a donation from the Qatari royal family. Mr. Trump has asked that the jet be upgraded to serve as Air Force One while he waits for Boeing to deliver long-overdue presidential planes.
The Qatari jet may end up being the biggest foreign gift ever received by the U.S. government. The plan under discussion raises substantial ethical issues, especially since Mr. Trump could use the $400 million jet after leaving office. He has said that he intends to receive it as a donation to his presidential library.
Pressed by reporters on Monday about the arrangement, Mr. Trump insisted that he would not use the plane after his presidency and suggested that it would be retired as an exhibit in his library.
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
