President Trump was more than 7,400 miles from Palm Beach, Florida, but looked at home.
With his giant glass candlestick, polished marble, luxury carpets and prominently exhibited portraits of King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi royal court had the sensation of an east mar-a-lago.
On Tuesday, the first day of the Four Day swing of the President, the heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, gave Mr. Trump the real treatment.
Trump was escorted through Saudi airspace by three F-15 combat aircraft that flank each side of Air Force One. The presidential limousine was accompanied to the Royal Court in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, by riders of Arab horses. The musical horns criticized. An honor guard paid attention while Prince Mohammed guided Mr. Trump to the Court along a long lavender carpet.
The president could not stop smiling, and understandingly. The Saudi real are their friends and allies. They are the commercial partners of his family. More than most, they understand their tastes and desires.
“I really think we like them a lot,” Trump said while sitting at the executive office of the king’s heir prince.
While walking with Prince Muhammad through the Royal Court, the president seemed impressed by his surroundings. Gold Leaf was everywhere: the moldings and the tables and legs of the blue velvet armchairs were golden.
Mr. Trump, who liked the United States for a “super luxury store”, has been installing a similar gold decoration through the Oval office. He plans to install a dance hall in the White House and has ordered the renewal of the Rosas Garden, making it an outdoor dining room such as the patio in Mar-A-Lago, his home and club in Palm Beach.
After lunch at the Royal Court, Trump spoke at the Saudi-US investment forum, in a dance hall where the Saudi government organizes its largest events, under the candlesticks of the size of the tanks.
Defense Contractors, International Financiers and Construction Executives Millad Around, Trying on Virtual Reality Goggles and Gawking AT Architectural Models of the Kingdom’s Planned Megaprojects, Including “The Line,” A 100-Mile-Long SkysCrored, and “A Míche Skyskjena, “A Mile’s Cracker,” A Mile-Long Skyskjena, “A Mile’s” A mile “a mile” a mile “of a mile” to Mile’s Cracka “, a mile of scraping, and” a mile “a mile” of a mile, “a mile of crust”, a mile “one mile. Officials intend to divide in the sterile mountains of the northwest of the country.
You could see a handful of magician hats among traditional red and white headdresses used by Saudi attendees.
Trump received a tour of what his Saudi hosts called the “Memories Gallery”, which told a story of “almost eight decades of Saudi association.”
Then he showed a desk in 1950 to the founding king of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al Saud, by President Harry S. Truman. Saudi officials invoked the 1945 meeting between King and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which was described as a defining encounter “that laid the foundations for a lasting diplomatic relationship between the two nations.”
Trump and Prince Mohammed were escorted on stage while playing dramatic music. After the heir prince spoke, “God Bless The USA” of Lee Greenwood played for several minutes, while Trump included approval, singing along with the last line.
The long day of real treatment for Mr. Trump was from the moment he left the One Air Force at the Royal Terminal, a special section for VIP at King Khalid International Airport.
Prince Mohammed greeted the president at the airport, which means the special status that Mr. Trump enjoys with Saudi Arabia. When President Biden visited in 2022, after saying that he would make the kingdom a “outcast”, and then realized that he needed his help to reduce oil prices, the heir prince sent the governor of Mecca to greet him at the airport.
After sunset, Prince Mohammed appealed to the president’s passion for real estate by taking him to a tour of an important development in the land where his ancestors once lived.
Diriyah, a historic city on Wadi Hanifah, a river valley on the outskirts of Riyadh, was the original headquarters of the Saudi Royal Family, 300 years ago. Today a Unesco site, the city, with its mud brick walls is being restored. Prince Mohammed wants to turn it into a magnet for tourism by building a commercial and residential project of $ 60 billion connected to Riad for a transport meter.
After showing Mr. Trump his scale model for the site, Prince Mohammed Tok the steering wheel of a golf cart and took the president to the state dinner.
Trump stays the first night of his four-day trip at the Ritz-Carlton Riad, an imposing hotel located in 52 acres of landscape gardens. The Riad Ritz is the same hotel where Trump maintained the duration of his first presidential visit eight years ago, and where President Barack Obama stayed in 2014.
But the hotel is better known as Prince Mohammed’s five -star prison. In 2017, he used the Ritz-Carlton to stop opponents, including government ministers, businessmen and members of their own royal family.
The heir prince was carrying out what he described as a repression of corruption. Others saw it as a consolidation of power and an omen for their future reign.