Updated May 13, 2025 at 6:39 AM MST
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for his first official overseas trip as president, accompanied by a massive delegation of top U.S. CEOs and members of his Cabinet that reflect the array of business and security interests underpinning relations with the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia is no longer just a key oil producer in the world, but a country in transition looking to diversify its economy, position itself as a mediator on the global stage and spur new industries that can create millions of jobs for young Saudis. To do this, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is rebranding the country and embarking on a massive social transformation that's liberalizing society, all while looking to the U.S. to maintain its role as security guarantor in the region.
This intertwining calculus will be on display in the deals inked during Trump's visit to Riyadh, which kicked off with the crown prince greeting the president with a handshake on the tarmac as Trump stepped off Air Force One. That's a departure from former President Joe Biden, whose fist bump with the crown prince when he came to visit in 2022 was viewed as a snub. Biden also raised the issue of human rights during that trip, something Trump is not expected to bring up in conversation.
Here's a look at some of the key issues on Trump's Gulf trip.
Trump's business-first approach with Saudi Arabia
This is very much a trip underpinned by big business deals. The president's visit has drawn a roster of who's-who to Riyadh for a formal state banquet. The list includes Elon Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, the CEOs of AI companies like Palantir and OpenAI, chipmaker Nvidia, as well as Google, Coca-Cola, Boeing and other major U.S. weapons manufacturers, as well as asset management firms like Blackstone and BlackRock, to name a few.
The biggest deals, though, are the defense announcements Trump has promised in Riyadh.
Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says this marks a pivot from most of Biden's term when sales of precision-guided munitions were paused over concerns about Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen.
The Saudis, she says, are looking to upgrade all of their systems and for additional weaponry and more high-tech planes.
"They see Trump as a businessman, as a very transactional diplomatic character, who if you're willing to name the right price of investment into the United States, he is willing to make concessions that other American presidents likely would not have," she says.
"For Saudi Arabia, I think this means if they named the right price for investments, that he'll be able to give them more advanced defense technology, he'll be able to open doors for them on the diplomatic world stage, which they are actively pursuing," Dent adds.
Trump announced Saudi Arabia as his first overseas state visit after a call with the crown prince in January, during which Prince Mohammed said the kingdom would invest at least $600 billion into the U.S. over the next four years.
The crown prince also wants to build a civilian nuclear program with U.S. technology, and those discussions are moving ahead under Trump.
That's something that had been tied to Saudi Arabia establishing relations with Israel, but the kingdom has been clear it will not move ahead with normalization without Israel stopping its war in Gaza and creating a pathway to Palestinian statehood. The current far-right government in Israel is rejecting both, and has been planning an even larger-scale invasion of Gaza amid a devastating blockade that is starving people there, according to the latest findings by independent experts on famine.
Trump's personal ties in the Gulf come into focus
Huge amounts of money from the Gulf have flowed into Trump's orbit since he was first elected president nearly nine years ago.
Just weeks ago, his son, Eric Trump, who runs the Trump Organization, was in the region for the launch of two new projects with a Saudi developer: A high-rise Trump hotel tower that will have the world's highest pool, and a sprawling Trump golf course with villas in Doha, Qatar. That's in addition to other Trump towers and projects underway in Saudi Arabia and Oman.
While president, Trump's investments and assets are in a trust managed by his children. Still, these deals and others have drawn criticism.
Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has previously secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund – overseen by the Saudi crown prince. It helped Kushner launch his private equity fund just months after leaving the White House where he was advisor to Trump in his first term.
Mamoun Fandy, director of the London Global Strategy Institute think tank, says these family business deals compromise the image of the office he holds.
"In the past, the presidency used to cost the president his financial well-being, if you will, that most people have to declare their assets and make sure they are separated from his office," he says. "Now everything is conflated."
The latest gesture came from Qatar, which has offered the president a new Boeing jet to replace one of the aging Air Force One planes. When asked by reporters about this before heading to the Gulf on Monday, Trump said he appreciated the offer.
"I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, 'No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane,' " he said.
The offer has drawn outrage by Democrats aghast at the suggestion of such a large gift from a foreign country.
Meanwhile, investments from the Gulf keep coming. The latest deal included the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture called World Liberty Financial. It's co-founded by Zack Witkoff, whose father is Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Mideast. Just days ago, an Abu Dhabi firm used World Liberty's stablecoin to close a $2 billion investment into crypto exchange, Binance.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters it's ridiculous to even suggest Trump is making money off being president.
"He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service, not just once, but twice," she said.
Trump's high-stakes diplomacy includes Iran, Gaza, Syria and other hotspots
The trip is also expected to touch on regional issues beyond the Gulf, including the war in Gaza, where the health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed nearly 53,000 people, a third of them children.
Trump's team held direct talks with Hamas in Qatar, leading to the freeing of Israeli-American soldier and hostage, Edan Alexander, on Monday. His release from Gaza is putting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return in earnest to negotiations to end the war, and change course on his government's plans to permanently occupy the Gaza Strip.
Trump says he hopes Alexander's release can put an end to the war.
Arab Gulf states also want to see Trump's team give adequate time to Iran for negotiations over its nuclear enrichment and missile program. There's still a lot of uncertainty around the talks.
"The administration has given very inconsistent signals about whether, ultimately, it would agree to an arrangement in which Iran would be able to continue domestic enrichment," says Daniel Shapiro, a fellow with the Atlantic Council and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Mideast.
He says Saudi Arabia is watching Iran's negotiations in order to decide how to pursue their own nuclear capabilities going forward.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States are expected to press Trump to ease U.S. sanctions on Syria under its new leadership, which is also facing Israeli airstrikes on its defenses as soldiers hold territory there indefinitely. Yemen's Houthis also continue to strike at Israel over its war in Gaza.
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