Donald Trump is on the final day of his Middle East tour. The White House schedule shows he will return to Washington despite previously labelling his travel plans as „destination unknown“. Follow live and listen to Trump 100 as you scroll.
Friday 16 May 2025 06:32, UK
We’ve just brought you the key timings of Donald Trump’s day, which show he’s set to return to Washington after he leaves the United Arab Emirates.
But the US president was coy when asked where he’d be heading to after his Middle East tour yesterday.
„We’ll be leaving tomorrow,“ he told reporters.
„It’s almost ‚destination unknown‘. We’re getting calls, ‚could you be here? Could you be there?‘ But we’re probably going back to Washington DC.“
It comes as there are calls for him to join Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey, which a US delegation will attend.
Our previous post shows Trump is set to arrive back at the White House in the early hours of tomorrow morning via a brief stop in the UK.
While it may be the last day of Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East, he still has a schedule of events before leaving the United Arab Emirates.
Here are all the key UK timings for when we expect to see the US president:
Welcome back to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s last day on his tour of the Middle East.
The visit has taken him to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – which he will be leaving later today.
Yesterday, Trump spoke to US troops at a strategic air base in Qatar, where he vowed to „never hesitate to wield American power“.
He was then given a grand welcome to Abu Dhabi and a private tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which he described as an „honour“.
That was before yet another lavish state dinner, which has become a theme of Trump’s Middle East tour.
Stay with us as we bring you updates from the US president’s last day of events before he heads back to Washington.
Thanks for joining us – we’re pausing our text updates now, but you can still watch more from Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East in the stream at the top of this page.
Before we return with more text updates in the morning, here’s a recap of the biggest stories from the last 24 hours:
For more expert analysis, catch up on the latest from our team of editors and correspondents:
Away from Trump’s tour of the Middle East for a moment and back over in the US, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s has been arrested after disrupting a Senate hearing with a pro-Gaza protest.
Ben Cohen, Ben of the famous ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, was one of seven people arrested at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sky News‘ US partner NBC News reported.
Robert F Kennedy Jr was speaking to the committee when the protests started with someone shouting: „RFK kills people with AIDs!“
„When Bobby lies, children die,“ is also heard, as well as: „Anti-vax, anti-science, anti-America“ in reference to Mr Kennedy’s vaccine views.
Police quickly flooded into the room and began dragging out protesters. Moments after, Cohen got to his feet and accused the US government of playing a role in the deaths of children in Gaza.
The ice cream boss can be seen in footage of the incident on his feet, gesturing as he shouted at the US health secretary.
Arab nations have rolled out the red carpet for Donald Trump during his Middle East tour (except for Saudi Arabia, who rolled out a symbolic lavender carpet instead).
On the latest leg of his trip to the region, the US president received an escort from UAE jets, which accompanied Air Force One to Abu Dhabi earlier today.
Trump received a similar escort when landing in Riyadh on Tuesday, with six Royal Saudi Air Force F-15s accompanying his plane into the kingdom’s capital.
Iran has not received any fresh proposal from the US to resolve a decades-long nuclear dispute, a senior Iranian official has told Reuters news agency.
The official also said Tehran would only ship its highly enriched uranium abroad if US sanctions were lifted „verifiably and effectively“.
Donald Trump said earlier that Iran has „sort of“ agreed to the terms of a nuclear deal with the US (see 8.04am post).
He also described the latest talks between the two countries, which ended on Sunday, as „very serious negotiations“ for „long-term peace“.
Away from Abu Dhabi for a moment, as we’ve just received an update from JD Vance’s office.
It said the US vice president will lead a delegation at the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV.
That will be taking place on Sunday, with tens of thousands expected to gather at St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
The new pope made headlines around the world after becoming the first American pontiff, and he’s also a citizen of Peru after spending many years there.
The service marks the official state of the new papacy, and will see world leaders, royalty and religious figures attend.
For more details on what to expect from the mass, you can read our explainer below.
Donald Trump is now being shown around the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.
„Isn’t this beautiful? It’s so beautiful,“ he says to the camera as he pauses for a moment.
„This is an incredible culture. I’m very proud of my friends. Thank you.
„This is the first time they’ve closed the mosque for the day, is that true? The first time they’ve closed it. It’s an honour.“
Now that Donald Trump has touched down in the United Arab Emirates, let’s revisit that schedule we told you about earlier (see 7.36 post).
His timings have slipped after leaving Qatar later than planned, but we’re expecting Trump to be at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque for around an hour before travelling to the Ritz Carlton Grand Canal for executive time with officials.
He will then head to Qasr Al Watan (Palace of the Nation) where there will be a state greeting, bilateral meetings and a guest book signing.
Like his visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Trump will be given a state dinner this evening.
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