Donald Trump has said the US-Saudi relationship is “more powerful than ever” after signing a $600bn deal with Riyadh, which includes the “largest defence sales agreement in history”. Follow the latest on Trump’s Middle East tour – and listen to the Trump 100 podcast as you scroll.
Tuesday 13 May 2025 21:16, UK
Donald Trump has often said that his “favourite word” is “tariff”. Surely “deal” would come a close second.
The president’s new term in the White House has been dominated by a protectionist agenda aimed at restoring America’s domestic manufacturing base and jobs.
His primary objective is cutting America’s trade deficit – by which the country imports more in value terms, than it exports.
That gap, the largest for any country in the world, stands at about $1.1trn (£830bn) annually.
The threat of, and later, the implementation of stop-start tariffs has flung the global trade order into chaos, with some companies and traditional trading partners taking the opportunity of a “deal”, when able to.
Trump has claimed that his work to date is worth $10trn (£7.5trn) to the US economy but experts have said the values are likely to be much lower and almost impossible to quantify.
Here, we outline some of the big deals to have been claimed so far in a bid to achieve Trump’s economic and trade goals.
Donald Trump spoke on the phone with released Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander today.
The 21-year-old was believed to be the last living American hostage in Gaza and spent 584 days in captivity.
Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff, posted a photo on X showing Trump on the phone in Riyadh today.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff was also on the call and praised Trump for his leadership which, he says, “made this possible”.
Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East continues tomorrow.
He is set to meet with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa after revealing he would end sanctions on the country today.
The US president will then leave Saudi Arabia, where he today announced a $600bn strategic economic deal between Washington and Riyadh.
Trump will then fly to Qatar, where he is expected to accept a free plane to replace Air Force One as a gift from the Qatari royal family.
The two customised Boeing 747-200B aircraft – which become known as Air Force One when the US President steps onboard – are among the most recognisable symbols of America on the global stage.
Made by an American company and emblazoned with the words United States of America, the US flag, and the presidential seal, they not only ferry the president around but also provide a “flying Oval Office” to allow work to continue.
It is for these reasons, among others, that the idea of Trump accepting a Qatari plane to replace Air Force One has led to concerns.
Described in some reports as a “palace in the sky”, the Boeing 747-8 jumbo would be a gift from the Qatari royal family – a move Trump has described as a “great gesture”.
But the move has sparked criticism from opponents – who have raised security fears and concerns over the eligibility of such a gift – as well as from the Republican Party, and even some voices from within Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Donald Trump is finishing his evening in Saudi Arabia with a state dinner hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
It means his public appearances for the day are over, giving us a chance to take a breath and reflect on the president’s busy day.
Here’s how the first day of his Middle East tour unfolded…
In today’s Saudi Arabia, convention centres resemble palaces.
The King Abdul Aziz International Conference Centre was built in 1999, but inside it feels like Versailles.
Some might call it kitsch, but it’s a startling reflection of how far this country has come – the growth of a nation from desert bedouins to vastly wealthy regional power-broker in just one generation.
At a bar overnight, over mocktails and a shisha, I listened to one young Saudi man tell me how his family had watched this transformation.
His father, now in his 60s, had lived the change.
He was a child born in a desert tent, brought up in a dusty town, fought the Soviets in Afghanistan with mujahideen in his 30s and spent his 40s in a deeply conservative Riyadh.
Now he watches, wide-eyed, the change supercharged in recent years…
Read on here:
Dozens of white South Africans have arrived in the US after the Trump administration granted them refugee status in the country, having deemed them victims of racial discrimination.
The first 59 Afrikaners were greeted by Christopher Landau, the US deputy secretary of state, at Washington’s Dulles International Airport yesterday.
Donald Trump invited Afrikaners, the descendants of mainly Dutch settlers, to move to the US in February to escape the alleged discrimination they face at the hands of the black majority in South Africa.
Trump echoed his white South African-born ally Elon Musk yesterday as he told reporters at the White House that there was “genocide that’s taking place”, with Afrikaners being killed.
By Tom Clarke, science and technology editor
The audience in Riyadh were probably wishing they had their own AI to summarise Donald Trump’s speech – it went on for 45 minutes.
And now it seems, they’re going to get one.
As part of Trump’s multibillion dealathon with Saudi Arabia, the US chipmakers Nvidia and AMD announced an agreement to supply Saudi Arabia with their most powerful and coveted AI chips. It’s a major shift in the geopolitics of AI.
The Biden administration restricted the export of cutting-edge AI chips to much of the world, including the Middle East, to protect the US tech industry and maintain US dominance in the global race for AI supremacy.
Under today’s deal, Saudi AI and data firm HUMAIN will receive 18,000 of Nvidia’s latest and most powerful “Blackwell” processors to incorporate into an AI supercomputer it plans to build in the desert kingdom.
As well as AI infrastructure, it aims to build an Arabic language AI.
It’s a big win for Saudi Arabia, which has been itching to expand into the AI and data economy as it looks beyond reliance on oil.
In return, the US is promised Saudi investment in its tech industry, including new data centres and associated energy infrastructure that America’s power companies are currently struggling to supply.
But there are concerns in the US about the risks of selling Saudi Arabia, which has closer ties to China, the jewels of America’s AI crown.
Concerns too, from those worried about AI safety, about its rapid development in a country that, despite recent reforms, remains an autocratic state.
It appears that Saudi Arabia has gone to every length imaginable to make Donald Trump feel right at home during his trip to the Middle East.
That seemingly stretches to providing a mobile McDonald’s truck if the US president can’t make it to one of the hundreds of existing branches already in the country.
Trump is well known for his love of fast food, even donning an apron and serving customers at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania during his election campaign.
Donald Trump has just reappeared in Saudi Arabia for the next of his engagements in the country.
After speaking earlier at a US-Saudi investment summit, the president is now at Diriyah At-Turaif, a historical district and UNESCO world heritage site, on the edge of Riyadh.
He’s being shown around the site by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Later this evening, Trump will be hosted at an official state banquet.
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