RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump stepped foot on foreign soil for the first time in his beleaguered presidency Saturday, hoping a nine-day diplomatic mission will help reverse two weeks of bad headlines and unite allies against terrorism.
Trump arrived at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh to an elaborate red-carpet ceremony and a military honor guard dressed in the traditional Saudi red-and-white checkered ghutra headdress.
The Saudi king, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, greeted the presidential plane in the 101-degree heat as a brass band played, cannons boomed and seven Saudi jets flew overhead trailing red, white and blue smoke.
It was a notable contrast from President Obama's last visit to the kingdom, during which King Salman delegated the task of greeting the president to a distant nephew, the provincial governor, amid tensions between the two countries over the Iran nuclear deal.
At an elaborate ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court, Trump bowed to receive the King Abdul Aziz Collar, a medal considered to the kingdom's highest honor — something Trump criticized Obama for years ago.
Saturday marked a mostly ceremonial beginning to Trump's first foreign trip, during which he's also scheduled to visit Israel, Rome, Brussels and Sicily. White House aides appeared to be in good spirits, with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner giving National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster a high-five between meetings.
Trump begins first foreign trip with visit to Saudi Arabia
Trump called the day "tremendous" and said it would result in "hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs."
Trump and Salman signed eight different agreements approving almost $110 million in arms sales to Saudi Arabia, plus another longer-term deal worth $350 billion over 10 years, said deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The deals included a Jane's catalog of military equipment, the State Department said: Tanks, artillery, counter-mortar radars, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, ships, patrol boats, aircraft and missile defenses.
The journey comes as Trump faces mounting questions about his firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating the Trump campaign's links to the Russian government.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told reporters aboard Air Force One that Trump got very little sleep during the 12-hour, 20-minute overnight flight, reading newspapers and talking to staff.
While Air Force One was in the air, news organizations reported a string of damaging revelations: The New York Times reported Trump told Russian diplomats that Comey was a "nut job," and that his firing would ease the pressure on the Russia investigation. The Washington Post reported a high-ranking White House aide was a "person of interest" in the probe. Later, CNN reported Russian officials boasted of their influence with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and White House lawyers were preparing for impeachment "just in case."
Trump also used the flight to work on his much-heralded speech to Muslim leaders Sunday, said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. The White House considers the speech a centerpiece of the visit, an opportunity to rally Arab allies in the battle against the Islamic State.
According to a draft of that speech obtained by the Associated Press, Trump will abandon some of the harsher anti-Muslim rhetoric of the political campaign, describing the war against terrorism as a "battle between good and evil" but "not a battle between different faiths, different sects or different civilizations."
Sanders said the draft was just one of five different versions of the speech being written by various aides, and that the president hadn't decided on a final version.
