Donald Trump is in Saudi Arabia, at the start of a three-day Middle East tour – with a big delegation of top US firms. Elsewhere, the Kremlin has responded to demands for Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet. Watch and follow live below.
Tuesday 13 May 2025 13:57, UK
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Donald Trump’s decision to mix business with politics in Saudi Arabia is „somewhat suspicious“ and throws into question whether the trip is good for the US or good for its president.
That’s according to Nicolai Due-Gundersen, a Middle East cultural and political analyst, who tells Gareth Barlow that the Trump guest list for this visit points to what the US president wants to secure from his trip.
The leaders of Amazon, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Uber, Coca-Cola, Google and Boeing are among those joining Trump, as well as Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk.
„These are business figures, not political figures,“ says Due-Gundersen. „These are not people who are traditionally seen as part of a US administration. Yet they are coming on this trip.
„It would appear that he is bringing them so that they can also get in on business deals. There are some who will question to what extent this trip is good for the United States, as opposed to being good for Trump?“
A conflict of interest?
Due-Gundersen points out that Trump owns properties in many of the countries he’s visiting during his trip to the Middle East through companies like the Trump Organisation, which is run by his son, Eric Trump.
„I would say that he is mixing business and politics, and perhaps that’s something that is somewhat suspicious,“ he says.
„If the business deals that he is overseeing are for, for example, the Trump Organisation, to what extent would he benefit from these deals after he leaves office as well? That’s a very interesting question.“
What’s in it for Saudi, Qatar and the UAE?
Due-Gundersen says that while Trump might be targeting massive business deals, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE will be eyeing different outcomes from his visit.
One of the most important will be pushing the US president to apply more pressure on Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu to get a ceasefire in Gaza.
„As some commentators have mentioned. Israel is not part of this trip, which is interesting. It emphasises the trip is about investment as opposed to security,“ Due-Gundersen says.
„But then you can ask yourself, well, what do the Emiratis want out of it in exchange for these deals? What about Saudi Arabia as well?
„I think one of the things that both countries want, and Qatar as well, is to see a ceasefire in Gaza, and that might be telling Trump to put pressure on Netanyahu.“
This is the scene at the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia, where we expect Donald Trump to make an announcement shortly.
Earlier, we told you the US president is expected to sign an agreement with Saudi Arabia, although there’s been no detail yet on what that could involve (see 12.27 post).
Watch along in the stream at the top of this live page, and we’ll bring you text updates as soon as we hear from him.
More pictures now from Donald Trump’s ongoing visit to Saudi Arabia.
It all began earlier with a handshake on the tarmac, after Air Force One touched down in Riyadh.
Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman greeted the US president.
Trump’s motorcade was then given the full VIP treatment, as he and his delegation travelled to the Royal Court.
The US president had fun when he saw Saudi’s ambassador to Washington.
And there was an elaborate coffee ceremony to honour his visit.
An update to bring you now on those proposed Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkey on Thursday we’ve been telling you about.
Sources have told Reuters that two of Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, will travel to Istanbul for the talks.
It’s unclear whether the US president will join them, but as we explained earlier (see 7.02 post), he’s not ruling out attending the talks himself.
During bilateral talks in progress now in Riyadh, Donald Trump just said he’s impressed with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling him „very wise“.
The US president also called MBS a „friend“ and talked of their good relationship.
„I really believe we like each other a lot,“ Trump added.
A pool of reporters was allowed in the room for four minutes – between 2.38 and 2.42 local time.
Trump also said he hoped $600bn of investment could become £1trn.
Delegations from both sides are seated in green chairs along one wall.
Donald Trump released a flurry of news in the build-up to his Middle East trip, so Sky’s US correspondents Mark Stone and James Matthews are breaking it down.
Could Trump really meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin? Can either side claim to have won in the US-China Trade War? And has Trump lost patience with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu?
If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.
Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.
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An update to bring you from the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia now, where Donald Trump is meeting Saudi officials.
The US president is having a bilateral meeting and is expected to sign an agreement with Saudi Arabia – perhaps the first of many while he’s in the Middle East.
There’s no information yet on details of the agreement that will be signed, but we’ll bring you more as we get it.
Rhiannon Mills, our royal correspondent, looks at the significance of Emmanuel Macron pipping Donald Trump to a UK state visit this year (see 9.25 post) – and what it tells us about the priorities of Keir Starmer’s government, despite its US charm offensive.
The offer of a state banquet is a big deal.
They’re seen as the ultimate diplomatic gift that the United Kingdom can give, as we quite literally roll out the red carpet for countries we really want to keep on side.
It’s why there was so much debate about Donald Trump being given his second and Keir Starmer seeming in such a rush to extend the invitation.
But after reports last month that Emmanuel Macron may get a state visit first, it has now been confirmed that the French president and his wife will be heading to Windsor Castle before the US president.
It will be Macron’s first state visit, but his bromance with King Charles goes way back to when he was Prince of Wales, particularly spending time together on events related to the environment.
But this is more than just the King inviting round an old friend.
It shows that, as well as wanting to stay in Trump’s good books, Europe also remains a priority for the government.
We’ve already seen it recently with Prince William deployed to Estonia and the King and Queen sent to Italy.
A state visit for Macron reinforces that message of friendship, as international relationships have been turned on their head by the American visitor who’ll also potentially be heading through the gates of Windsor Castle sometime soon.
Earlier, we saw Donald Trump greeting dozens of officials as they lined up at the front of the ballroom at the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia.
„Nice to see you,“ he repeatedly said as they came up one by one.
„Howdy,“ he even said to one woman dressed in Western clothes.
When a Saudi man told Trump his company’s name, the US president replied: „That’s a good one.“
But perhaps the best moment came when a protocol aide introduced deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince.
The same title was also read out when James Blair and Taylor Budowich approached Mohammed bin Salman.
That led the crown prince to jokingly ask if there was another one… and indeed there was, with Stephen Miller coming next.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk is reported to have been in conversation with Jensen Huang, chief executive of NVIDIA.
Donald Trump will be hoping to display economic success on his visit to Saudi Arabia, the director of the US and Americas programme at Chatham House has said.
Speaking to our lead world news presenter Yalda Hakim, Leslie Vinjamuri said the backdrop of international economic chaos is one that Trump wants to move away from.
„This is a tremendous opportunity, and there’s the level of optics for him to do that,“ she explained.
Vinjamuri added that Trump is willing to strike bilateral deals in areas where Joe Biden was more cautious, and points to semiconductor chips as an example.
She then turned to Saudi Arabia’s pledge of $600bn in investment, and said „for this president, being able to claim success matters a huge amount“.
„There’s a lot of Americans that won’t follow whether those pledges are delivered on, and so those headlines are extremely important.“
Watch the full interview in the video below.
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