President Donald Trump’s 17th week in office will be spent preparing for his journey to the Middle East, his first big overseas trip of the second term.
“President Trump will return to [the Middle East to] re-emphasize his continued vision for a proud, prosperous and successful Middle East where the United States and Middle Eastern nations are in cooperative relationships and where extremism is defeated in place of commerce and cultural exchanges,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday.
“This trip ultimately highlights how we stand on the brink of the golden age for both America and the Middle East, united by a shared vision of stability, opportunity and mutual respect, the president greatly looks forward to visiting with our brave men and women in uniform at our U.S. air base in Qatar throughout this trip.”
Trump left Washington, D.C., on Monday for trips to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. The president revealed last week, during a visit to the White House by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, that he would make “a very, very big announcement” before departing for the Middle East, but has not provided any other specifics.
“We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make, like as big as it gets,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “And I won’t tell you on what… and it’s very positive.”
“It is really, really positive. And that announcement will be made either Thursday or Friday or Monday before we leave,” Trump added. “But it’ll be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject, very important subject. So you’ll all be here.”
Trump’s four-day trip abroad coincides with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, ongoing US-Iran negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, and reported plans to expand his first administration’s Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab League nations such as the United Arab Emirates.
“Eight years ago, President Trump’s first trip was to this same region of the world, where he introduced his bold peace-through-strength foreign policy strategy. On that trip, the president laid out his goal of eradicating terrorism and extremism in the region, which he successfully accomplished over the course of his administration with the total defeat of ISIS and the historic signing of the Abraham Accords,” Leavitt told the media on Friday.
Trump’s first trip as president was to Saudi Arabia and Israel in 2017, followed by a visit to Europe.
The journey to the Middle East this week is being hailed as Trump’s first big foreign trip as president, though he did visit Rome late last month for Pope Francis’ burial at the Vatican.
As Trump prepares to leave for the Middle East, administration officials spent the weekend in Geneva talking with Chinese colleagues on a prospective trade accord.
Early Monday morning, the United States and China issued a joint statement disclosing that “the United States and China will each lower tariffs by 115% while retaining an additional 10% tariff,” according to the White House.
The United States levied tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese imports earlier this year as the president seeks to balance the country’s chronic trade deficit with other countries.
The duties on China came after Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” trade address, in which he revealed his reciprocal tariff plan for dozens of countries, including China. Later that month, he stopped all reciprocal tariffs except on China after nations demanded trade accords. Meanwhile, China placed its own duties on the United States, including a duty levy of 125% on US exports.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Chinese trade officials in Switzerland this weekend, and Trump stated that “great progress” had been achieved between the two nations.