Trump Gets a Gold Medal Welcome From Saudi King

Trump Gets a Gold Medal Welcome From Saudi King

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — With trumpets blaring, cannons booming and fighter jets streaking overhead trailed by red, white and blue contrails, President Trump arrived in the scorching heat of the Arabian desert on Saturday hoping to realign the politics and diplomacy of the Middle East by forcefully reasserting American support for Sunni Muslim countries and Israel against Iran’s Shiite-led government.
The start of Mr. Trump’s first trip abroad since becoming president — coming amid the scandals and chaos engulfing his administration — was intended to be a blunt rejection of President Barack Obama’s vision for the region. Mr. Obama sought a reconciliation with Iran and negotiated a deal intended to keep Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. As Mr. Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia, Iranians re-elected President Hassan R. Mr. Trump, whose face was plastered on billboards around the city, was greeted warmly by Saudi leaders, who had grown weary and disenchanted with Mr. Obama. They fault him for failing to intervene forcefully in the Syrian war and for what they view as tolerance of Iranian support for terrorism.
For Mr. Trump, the warm embrace by the Saudi monarchy was a welcome break from the cascade of bad news in Washington. Even as Air Force One took off from a Maryland air base on Friday afternoon, headlines revealed new details about the swiftly expanding investigation into ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s advisers. Continue reading the main story
Questions about those headlines followed Mr. Trump across the globe, a reminder of the chaos and scandal dogging him back home. But the president at least initially resisted the temptation to deviate from his diplomatic script to address reports that he had referred to James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, as “a nut job” during meetings with Russians officials in the Oval Office.
Throughout his first day as America’s top overseas ambassador, Mr. Trump posed for pictures, shook hands with his hosts and avoided his domestic turmoil. The president’s aides scheduled the trip with no news conferences and few opportunities for reporters to ask the president questions.
Mr. Trump announced a nearly $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia as evidence of a renewed commitment by the United States to the security of the Persian Gulf region. The package includes precision weaponry that Mr. Obama had held up over concerns that it would be used to kill civilians in the war in neighboring Yemen, as well as an antimissile system, and the White House said in a statement that it demonstrated American “commitment to our partnership with Saudi Arabia and our Gulf partners.”
A forum bringing together American and Saudi corporate executives on Saturday also produced a series of multibillion-dollar deals. Among them: Lockheed Martin signed a $6 billion letter of intent to assemble 150 Black Hawk helicopters in Saudi Arabia, and General Electric announced a series of projects it valued at $15 billion. During two days here, the president is set to meet with dozens of leaders from the Persian Gulf and the wider Muslim world as he seeks to shape a new Middle East coalition. His current embrace of the Gulf nations differs sharply with some of his previous remarks. In 2014, before becoming a candidate for the White House, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter: “Tell Saudi Arabia and others that we want (demand!) free oil for the next ten years or we will not protect their private Boeing 747s. Pay up!”oohing, who sealed the nuclear deal.