President Donald Trump landed in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday morning, following a spectacular fighter jet escort across the kingdom’s airspace.
Journalists on the presidential plane stated that six Saudi F-15s glided “in close proximity” — three on each side — during the last half-hour of the journey. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino, tweeted a video of the unusual escort while still in the air.
“Thank you for the escort, and having President Trump’s back—We all appreciate it. See you on the ground shortly, THANK YOU!!!” he wrote on X.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Trump on the runway as he threw a fist pump. Bin Salman led him down a purple carpet to a conference room where the country’s de facto ruler held a coffee ceremony.
Trump was joined by Cabinet members, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The sidewalks of the hot Saudi capital were adorned with American flags for the visit, while mobile billboards along the route this week advertised the recently announced Disney Abu Dhabi theme park in the adjacent United Arab Emirates.
Trump’s crowded schedule on Tuesday will include a speech to an investment roundtable with tech industry leaders like as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman, followed by a state supper.
His three-nation visit to the Middle East, which includes Qatar and the UAE, is anticipated to focus on attracting investment for the United States.
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Trump’s 17th week in office will be spent preparing for his journey to the Middle East, his first big overseas trip of the second term.
“President Trump will return to [the Middle East to] re-emphasize his continued vision for a proud, prosperous and successful Middle East where the United States and Middle Eastern nations are in cooperative relationships and where extremism is defeated in place of commerce and cultural exchanges,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday.
“This trip ultimately highlights how we stand on the brink of the golden age for both America and the Middle East, united by a shared vision of stability, opportunity and mutual respect, the president greatly looks forward to visiting with our brave men and women in uniform at our U.S. air base in Qatar throughout this trip.”
Trump left Washington, D.C., on Monday for trips to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. The president revealed last week, during a visit to the White House by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, that he would make “a very, very big announcement” before departing for the Middle East, but has not provided any other specifics.
“We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make, like as big as it gets,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “And I won’t tell you on what… and it’s very positive.”
“It is really, really positive. And that announcement will be made either Thursday or Friday or Monday before we leave,” Trump added. “But it’ll be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject, very important subject. So you’ll all be here.”
Trump’s four-day trip abroad coincides with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, ongoing US-Iran negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, and reported plans to expand his first administration’s Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab League nations such as the United Arab Emirates.
“Eight years ago, President Trump’s first trip was to this same region of the world, where he introduced his bold peace-through-strength foreign policy strategy. On that trip, the president laid out his goal of eradicating terrorism and extremism in the region, which he successfully accomplished over the course of his administration with the total defeat of ISIS and the historic signing of the Abraham Accords,” Leavitt told the media on Friday.