AILSA CHANG, HOST:
President Trump landed in Saudi Arabia early this morning. It is the first big trip of his second term, and it was also the first place he traveled to back in 2017. He says the Middle East has been transformed since then by a new generation of leaders focused on business and technology.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This great transformation has not come from Western interventionalists or flying people in beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. No.
CHANG: And there is a new leader from the region that Trump plans to meet tomorrow for the first time - the new president of Syria. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez joins us now from Riyadh at the end of a very, very long day. Hi, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so the White House says Trump will meet tomorrow with the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa. Can you just tell us what you think is the significance of this meeting we're expecting?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, sure. I mean, it's likely going to be a very short meeting, just a few hellos. But this really is a big shift in U.S. foreign policy. Now, Trump sees this as a chance for stability in Syria after decades of civil war.
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TRUMP: I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.
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ORDOÑEZ: The U.S. has had sanctions in place since 1979. And the new president, until this year, led a group that had links to al-Qaida. Trump has said he decided to lift the sanctions after speaking with the Saudi crown prince and the president of Turkey, and it really was a significant moment of diplomacy in a trip that is expected to be defined by business deals.
CHANG: Right. OK, business deals. But can we talk about the bigger picture here? Like, what is Trump, in your mind, looking to get out of this trip?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, a lot of it is about getting - you know, demonstrating stronger ties between the two countries. I mean, they really rolled out the red carpet for Trump, or in this case, in Saudi's case, a lavender carpet.
CHANG: Oh.
ORDOÑEZ: You know, Trump was escorted to the Saudi airport by a group of F-15 fighter jets, and the whole day was incredibly lavish, with two Arabian horse welcomes. There were camels and multiple receptions. We just got back from a big state dinner where there were traditional drummers.
And just to go back a moment, there was a lot of pomp and circumstance during Trump's first visit here in 2017, but former President Joe Biden had a real difficult relationship with the crown prince. You know, he didn't even want to shake his hand on camera. He gave him a fist bump. And this was because of the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi...
CHANG: Right.
ORDOÑEZ: ...And also the U.S. intelligence assessment that the crown prince had approved the operation. But that was then, and now Trump called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a incredible man and praised him extensively throughout the day. And you heard that clip at the top, that Trump said he's not here to lecture. He wants to make business deals.
CHANG: Yeah, let's go back to those business deals. What kind of deals did Trump actually make?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, I can tell you there was a long list of CEOs here today with Trump from Nvidia, OpenAI, Elon Musk of course, financial firms and defense contractors. The White House says there were about $142 billion in arm deals with more than a dozen U.S. firms and $80 billion in technology investments. And we're really going to - expecting to see more of that during other stops on the trip to Qatar and UAE.
CHANG: Well, given the various conflicts in the region at the moment, I mean, real quick, Franco, what did Trump have to say about those conflicts?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, when it came to the war in Gaza, he really didn't say much. He did say that it was his dream for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel by joining the Abraham Accords. But that's something that the crown prince has said it won't be possible until the war ends.
CHANG: That is NPR's Franco Ordoñez in Riyadh. Thank you so much, Franco.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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