Guest post by Joe Hoft
Above US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump step off Air Force One upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on May 20, 2017. / AFP / MANDEL NGAN
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia this morning for their first stop on a tour throughout the Middle East and Italy. Saudi Arabia is the first country visited by President Trump and the first Muslim nation selected by a President for his first country to visit. The President’s First Daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump and son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner are also scheduled on the first leg of this tour.
(photo also from thepenisulaqatar.com)
President Trump was met on the tarmac by the Saudi King as reported by the far left liberal New York Times:
In Riyadh, Mr. Trump is viewed as a refreshing change from President Barack Obama, who was viewed with disdain in the wake of the Iranian nuclear deal that Mr. Obama brokered in 2015. Last year, Mr. Obama visited Saudi Arabia for meetings with King Salman and Gulf leaders, but the king did not meet him on the airport’s tarmac. Mr. Obama’s aides later played down the incident, but it was broadly portrayed in news accounts as a snub.
Mr. Trump’s planned trip had been greeted with public enthusiasm that is rare for this usually restrained country. Huge billboards around the city featured Mr. Trump and King Salman, while the city’s roads were lined with alternating American and Saudi flags.
