U.S. President Donald Trump looks on before he departs for Washington, from West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., March 30, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he plans to visit Saudi Arabia as early as May to sign an investment agreement in what will be the first foreign trip of his second term, with stops also planned in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
"It could be next month, maybe a little later," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
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Four sources briefed on the matter said mid-May was being looked at as the timing for the trip. Trump made Saudi Arabia and Israel the initial stops on his inaugural foreign trip during his first term in 2017.
Trump, reiterating remarks he made in early March, said his trip to Saudi Arabia would be to seal an agreement to invest upwards of $1 trillion in the U.S. economy, including purchases of military equipment.
He suggested similar agreements would be signed in Qatar and the UAE.
"Tremendous jobs will be created in those two or three days," Trump said. The president did not elaborate on the specifics of the deals.
Other topics likely to be discussed include Russia's three-year-old war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza, one source said.
Saudi Arabia has played a prominent role in U.S. foreign policy, including hosting U.S. ceasefire talks with Russia and Ukraine.
"An opportunity for international travel for the president is something that is being looked at. We don’t yet have a specific plan, and we will provide that information when it is official," a White House official said ahead of Trump's remarks.
Last week, Trump vowed to add more countries to the Abraham Accords, the series of normalization agreements his administration negotiated between Israel and some Gulf countries during his first term.
Trump said more countries want to join the accords. While the White House has singled out Saudi Arabia as a possible participant in the accords, the Saudis have qualms about Israel due to the Gaza war.
Reporting by Jeff Mason, Daphne Psaledakis, Steve Holland, Gram Slattery and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Susan Heavey, Colleen Jenkins, Howard Goller and Nia Williams
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Jeff Mason
Thomson Reuters
Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA's work was recognized with Deutsche Welle's "Freedom of Speech Award." Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA's “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure" award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists' "Breaking News" award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.
Gram Slattery
Thomson Reuters
Gram Slattery is a White House correspondent in Washington, focusing on national security, intelligence and foreign affairs. He was previously a national political correspondent, covering the 2024 presidential campaign. From 2015 to 2022, he held postings in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Santiago, Chile, and he has reported extensively throughout Latin America.
