Trump touts U.S.-Saudi partnership
President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia — the first stop on his first overseas trip, which began Friday — is designed to solidify what the administration envisions as its premier partnership in the Arab and Muslim world, effectively anointing the kingdom as Islam’s political as well as religious leader.
During two full days in Riyadh, Trump plans to sign bilateral military, economic and counterterrorism agreements with the Saudis, signaling an end to what both Riyadh and Washington have called the estrangement of the Obama years.
Given the turmoil in Washington, the journey may offer a welcome break for the besieged administration. Nearly every senior White House adviser was aboard Air Force One on Friday afternoon for the more than 12-hour flight to Riyadh.
But after touting the tour as an opportunity for what aides call Trump’s “disruptive” style to shake up the world in a positive way, the ongoing news from home may end up being a major distraction to Trump and his hosts.
Over two days at the top of a grueling schedule, the president will hold bilateral meetings and a summit with the six Persian Gulf states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. At a lunch with leaders of more than 50 majority-Muslim countries from around the world — chosen and invited by Saudi Arabia — Trump will deliver what White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster called “an inspiring, yet direct speech” on his vision for confronting radical ideology, spreading peace and sharing the burdens of achieving both.
Overnight stops in Jerusalem and the Vatican will follow, completing a tour of “the Muslim world, the Jewish world and the Catholic world, all in about four days” a senior administration official said, with a “historic” message of religious tolerance.
The nine-day trip ends with visits to the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, both in Brussels, and attendance at a summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations in Sicily. Trump returns home on May 27.
But the main focus from the beginning has been on the Saudi stop. Planning began last fall shortly after Trump’s election, according to the senior official, one of several who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the agenda, when the kingdom made contact with Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner to say, “We really want to work with this administration.”