President Donald Trump embarks Monday on the first major international trip of his second term — an opportunity to shore up relations with a trio of key Middle Eastern allies and prove his might as a dealmaker on the world stage.
Arriving in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday with stops in Doha, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, later in the week, the trip echoes Trump’s first international foray in 2017.
“Now, eight years later, President Trump will return to reemphasize 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,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, casting the trip as a “historic return to the Middle East.”
But much has changed in the global and economic world order since Trump’s first-term sojourn: The president has dramatically reimagined and reshaped the US’ role in the world in his first months in office, and the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars have upended stability in Europe and the Middle East.
Still, the trip offers Trump the chance to notch a few economic wins, revel in the pomp and circumstance of presidential visits, and highlight deepening partnerships.
And what goes unmentioned on the trip may prove just as important as what is said.
Here’s what we’ll be watching on Trump’s first big trip abroad:
Trump’s counterparts are likely to roll out the literal and figurative red carpet for the American president. In 2017, Trump’s likeness was projected onto the side of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, and there could be similar efforts to welcome the American president this time by world leaders seen as friendly to the Trump administration.
“This is his happy place. His hosts will be generous and hospitable. They’ll be keen to make deals. They’ll flatter him and not criticize him. And they’ll treat his family members as past and future business partners,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Trump is also expected to visit with service members at the US air base in Qatar, Leavitt said.
During the president’s 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia, an image of the Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud holding a glowing orb at a counterterrorism center in Riyadh spawned memes around the world; it remains to be seen what this trip’s orb might be.
