Affluent, commercial deals and $400 million aircraft from Qatar: Takeaway from Trump's trip to the Middle East

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – President Donald Trump uses his first large foreign trip to the second term to outline a vision of restoring global stability based on pragmatism and self-interest rather than values, rather than keeping us in touch with wealthy Gulf States as a model of a long-term enemy of the United States.

His four-day swing in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates ended on Friday has attracted attention to Trump's dealing attitude toward foreign affairs as he was brought to a luxury state visit of three by authoritarian rulers, where the economic and security partnership was largely emphasized.

His travels were conducted in the context of stubborn global conflicts, including Gaza and Ukraine, which demonstrated the limitations of his influence. But Trump insists that he will recognize Syria’s new administration for the first time and prompt Iran to hold nuclear talks before it’s too late.

Some of the gains from Trump’s travel:

Presidential trips to the Middle East usually have at least some public calls for authoritarian governments to improve their human rights efforts. Not this, Trump celebrates business deals with Gulf Royals and admires their wealth.

Trump visited the marble and gilded palaces of the Gulf Rulers and thought they were “perfect” and “hard to buy”. He praised the “glittering miracle” of the Saudi Arabian skyline. He mourned the “impressive” Air Force One.

In his speech at the VIP Business Conference in Riyadh, Trump did his best to be far from his past actions, when he said U.S. officials would fly around “beautiful planes and give you lectures on how to live and how to manage your own affairs.”

Rights advocates see it as a commitment to non-intervention, and some of the pressures that oath put on our past presidents has brought responsibility to partners to varying degrees to ease detention and curb critics and other issues.

“This absolutely supports absolute monarchy,” said Saudi Arabia Abdullah Alaoudh, whose father was a Saudi priest with a wide following there, imprisoned in the kingdom.

Some rights advocates say Trump officials have given them private assurances that the administration works on behalf of detained Americans and rights advocates. State Department Deputy State spokesman Tommy Pigott declined to say whether Trump raised these or other rights issues in his discussions with Gulf royals.

When Trump was in the Middle East, Vladimir Putin chose to skip direct peace talks with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite strong calls from the U.S. president to meet face to face.

Trump has been prompting Putin and Putin to take a rush to end the Russian war in Ukraine.

But, it was obvious that Putin would not attend Turkey's speech this week, but instead sent his subordinates to Istanbul, an angry Trump insisted that he had always known that Putin was likely to be an unshowable one.

“Until he and I get together, I don't believe if anything will happen to you,” Trump said. “But we're going to have to fix it because so many people are dying.”

Trump said in-person things will be “once we can build it.”

Trump was scheduled to fly back to Washington on Friday, but tried to get people speculation until the end. He added that he laughed late Thursday at the time of his trip to “the destination unknown” – “probably” Washington. His opaque language has sparked speculation that he might cast his head on Türkiye.

But on Friday morning, he told reporters that he needed to return to Washington. When the president left, his daughter Tiffany gave birth to her first child.

“I'm actually going to leave here,” Trump said. “I do want to meet my beautiful grandson.”

Just two months ago, the Trump administration did not sell it on the Syrian Provisional Government led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, an insurgent who was once an al-Qaeda. They fear that the Syrian president has no legitimacy to manage the country's racially diverse population.

The conflict broke out in early March, killing hundreds of people and targeting more members of the Alawian religious minority, the religious minority to which the expelled Syrian leader Basher Assad belonged.

At that time, Trump's White House relaxed sanctions on Syria and stopped. But Trump pointed out on Monday that he is changing his heart and moving towards lifting Syrian sanctions. A day later, he announced the move while speaking to the Gulf leaders.

Trump then agreed to meet with al-Sharaa, taking another step.

Trump said he was impressed by al-Sharaa, who had a $10 million American bounty on his head not long ago. The president calls him a “young, attractive person” with a “very strong past.”

Trump said the advice of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made him seize al-Sharra's opportunity.

“President Erdogan called me and said, 'Is there any way to do this? Because if you don't, they don't have a chance,” Trump said. “So, I did.”

Throughout the journey, Trump felt uncomfortable exaggerating and exaggerating.

“This is an amazing trip,” Trump told reporters on Thursday that Air Force One is about to land in Qatar. “We raised trillions of dollars in investment for our country.” Soon after, he set the figure at $4 trillion.

This figure is about twice the total domestic product in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, meaning that any announced investment may be generated in a few years, if any, the way it may not be in the overall U.S. economic growth volume.

Boeing confirmed that Qatar purchased its 787 and 777x jets for $96 billion were the largest orders for the company's history in the 787s and widebody jets. Trump is keen on “I think it is the greatest order in aviation's history, it must be such a big jet.”

Trump also succumbed to the economic record of his former Democrat Joe Biden, for a moment proclaiming: “Under the previous administration, the days of economic misery are quickly giving way to the greatest economy in world history.”

Last year, the U.S. economy grew by 2.8%. Its annual decline rate was 0.3% in the first three months of the year.

Although Trump's trip was initially considered a reward for visits to countries investing in U.S. investment, Trump once hoped that it would also herald an important step to end the war between Gaza and Ukraine. It turns out that positive news on both sides is elusive.

Trump has barely mentioned any conflict during his travels – when he does this, usually in the case where he asserts that they won't happen if he wins reelection in 2020.

When Israel attacks in Gaza, Hamas promises to take over the territory altogether if it does not release the remaining hostages in its captivity – Trump has once again been addicted to establishing “free zones” on its territory. This is a concept rejected by the Palestinians and the broader Arab world as Trump’s plan to rebuild civilians from Gaza to allow for reconstruction.

Trump is in the region, Israel has carried out numerous air strikes in Gaza throughout the week, and the battle on the ground seems to have escalated before Trump leaves the UAE.

Meanwhile, Trump said in the Gaza Strip, “a lot of people are starving”, a rare recognition of the humanitarian crisis in the territory. “We are looking at Gaza,” Trump told reporters at a business forum in Abu Dhabi on his last day of his trip to the Middle East.

“And we have to be cared for. A lot of people are hungry. A lot of people are-a lot of bad things happening.”

Trump has faced doubts about conflicts of interest traveling to the Middle East to shape U.S. policies while the business interests of families in the region are booming. He tried to silence his concerns about national security and constitutional issues by insisting that he would accept $400 million in luxury aircraft from Qatar and use it as Air Force One's luxury aircraft.

Trump posted on his social media website during his Middle East swing: “Why our military and our taxpayers should be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The president also used Trump's family-aligned Stablecoin to make $2 billion in the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, avoiding the problem in a state-backed investment company in Abu Dhabi.

“I know nothing about it,” he said.

In addition, the Trump family has accumulated deals to license their brand for real estate projects and build Trump towers and golf courses near the Middle East. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was “candalous” to doubt whether these profits would affect Trump's decision to take office.

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Madhani reported from Dubai. Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Will Weissert and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to the report.