The News
US President Donald Trump will reportedly visit Saudi Arabia in mid-May, his first foreign trip since returning to office.
The decision mirrors a move he made at the beginning of his first term, Axios noted, and cements Riyadh’s growing heft in global diplomacy. The kingdom has hosted ceasefire talks between the US, Ukraine, and Russia, and has played a role in efforts to end the Gaza war, with a potential normalization of relations with Israel still on the table — though Riyadh says this depends on the creation of a Palestinian state.
The visit also points to the importance Trump himself attaches to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, and the region’s growing influence in Washington. The president this month said he would go to Saudi as the first foreign trip of his second term, linking the visit to Riyadh’s decision to invest $1 trillion over four years with American companies. Saudi Arabia isn’t the only Gulf nation opening its checkbook to garner the White House’s attention: The UAE this month committed to invest $1.4 trillion in the US over a decade, the Trump administration said, following a visit by the Emirates’ national security adviser to Washington.