RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump took a victory lap at the White House Monday before jetting off on a three-country tour of the Middle East, where he’s expected to try to drum up more investment in the US.
Trump claimed credit for averting a nuclear war in the Indian subcontinent, forcing Ukraine and Russia into peace talks, brokering a trade breakthrough with China and winning the release of the last US citizen held hostage by Hamas.
“Now I’m going to depart on a historic visit,” Trump told reporters of his visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Untied Arab Emirates this week.
A news-packed weekend began early Saturday, with the president announcing the US had helped India and Pakistan negotiate a cease-fire following four days of fighting precipitated by an April 22 Islamic terror attack that killed 26 at a resort in India-controlled Kashmir.
“We stopped a nuclear conflict,” Trump told reporters ahead of signing an order aimed at lowering US drug prices. “It could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed. So I’m very proud of that.”
Also Saturday, Trump’s administration held trade talks for the first time with China in Switzerland, with both parties agreeing to lower their tariff rates by 115% for 90 days as they work out a permanent agreement — easing market worries after Trump’s prior 145% rate brought shipping almost to a complete halt.
Trump said China had agreed to fundamental trade reforms that will take time to formalize.
“They’ve agreed to open China — fully open China,” the president claimed. “It’s going to take a while to paper it … And I think it’s going to be fantastic for China. I think it’s going to be fantastic for us. And I think it’s going to be great for unification and peace.”
Trump said Beijing also “agreed that they’re going to stop” exporting fentanyl, which has killed nearly 300,000 Americans over the past four years — adding, “They’ll be rewarded by not having to pay, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs.”
Trump also touted progress between Russia and Ukraine — after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to potentially meet Thursday in Turkey with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump had publicly pressured Zelensky to attend, though it’s not yet confirmed that Putin will show.
The president said he might even reorder his Mideast trip to make a cameo at the talks.
“I was very insistent that that meeting take place. I think good things can come out of that meeting … They’re human souls, and they’re being killed at levels that we haven’t seen since the Second World War,” Trump said.
“If I thought it would be helpful — I don’t know where I’m going to be at that particular point, I’ll be someplace in the Middle East — but I would fly there, if I thought it would be helpful,” Trump mused.
Trump is currently scheduled to fly from Qatar — which may be gifting him a $400 million luxury plane to use as Air Force One — to the UAE on Thursday.
Trump also celebrated the fact that the last living American held by Hamas, Edan Alexander, was released from the Gaza Strip and would be coming home — after US negotiators directly engaged with the terrorist group.
“Edan Alexander, an American citizen who, until recently, most thought was no longer living, thought was dead, is going to be released in about two hours,” Trump said. “He’s going to be released before the eyes of [special Middle East envoy] Steve Witkoff, who has done a fantastic job.”
Trump’s trip will begin in the scorching Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, where he’s expected to attend an investment conference on Tuesday followed by a meeting with Gulf State leaders on Wednesday.
He’s then set to fly to Qatar and the UAE to potentially broker more deals with foreign nations — with a possible pit stop in Turkey pending.
The Middle East tour is the president’s first major foreign travel of his second administration, mirroring the first big trip he took when he entered office in 2017. That journey lasted a week and included stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, Italy, the Vatican, and Belgium.
Read the full article here
