Saudi Arabia has mobile McDonald’s in case Trump gets Big Mac urge: Live updates

The president is well known for his love of fast food.

And in case he gets homesick there is a mobile McDonald’s in Riyadh.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

President Donald Trump slammed the foreign policy of his own party – during his speech to the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh Tuesday night.

In a released excerpt from the White House, Trump was set to say:

In the end, the so-called “nation-builders” wrecked far more nations than they built – and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies they did not understand.

It was Republican President George W. Bush who launched U.S. troops into Afghanistan on the heels of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and then started a preemptive war with Iraq in 2003 to stop ‘weapons of mass destruction’ getting into the hands of dictator Saddam Hussein.

Trump has been immensely critical of Bush and the ‘neocons’ foreign policy.

When the president delivered the speech, he went after the ‘neocons’ by name – and noted that they left Kabul and Baghdad in tatters.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

After Qatar announced its plan to gift Donald Trump a jet, the president’s closest MAGA allies in Congress are telling the president to be wary of the ‘bribe.’

The Qatari royal family has given the president a Boeing 747-8, a gift reportedly worth $400 million, which Trump said would serve as a replacement to Air Force One ‘temporarily.’

The president has been frustrated that his 2018 order for new planes to replace the aging fleet has been continuously delayed by Boeing. Estimates range, but some indicate the Air Force One replacements won’t come until after Trump’s term ends.

‘So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a gift, free of charge, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, top dollar, for the plane,’ Trump posted.

‘Anybody can do that! The Dems are world class losers!’ Trump sneered.

President Donald Trump lavished praise on the Saudis during a speech at an investment forum in Riyadh.

He took the stage to his rally entry song: Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless The U.S.A.’

Notably, Trump praised Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as an ‘incredible man.’

‘There’s nobody like him,’ he said.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

President Donald Trump will ‘say hello’ to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday while on the ground in Saudi Arabia a White House official confirmed.

On Tuesday, Daily Mail asked Trump if he planned to meet with the new Syrian leader.

Trump appeared to mouth ‘I think so’ before getting in the Beast.

al-Sharaa pitched building a ‘Trump Tower Damascus’ to woo the U.S. president into dropping sanctions in place from the Assad regime. The Syrian leader was also set to offer a detente with Israel and the U.S. some of Syria’s oil in order to get the damaging sanctions removed, Reuters reported Monday.

The president arrived in Riyadh Tuesday morning to great fanfare – with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud greeting Trump at the airport and sticking close to his side all day.

The Saudis had pushed Trump to meet with al-Sharaa

‘The President agreed to say hello to the Syrian President while in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,’ a White House official said.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

President Donald Trump will ‘say hello’ to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday while on the ground in Saudi Arabia a White House official confirmed.

On Tuesday, Daily Mail asked Trump if he planned to meet with the new Syrian leader.

Trump appeared to mouth ‘I think so’ before getting in the Beast.

al-Sharaa pitched building a ‘Trump Tower Damascus’ to woo the U.S. president into dropping sanctions in place from the Assad regime. The Syrian leader was also set to offer a detente with Israel and the U.S. some of Syria’s oil in order to get the damaging sanctions removed, Reuters reported Monday.

The president arrived in Riyadh Tuesday morning to great fanfare – with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud greeting Trump at the airport and sticking close to his side all day.

The Saudis had pushed Trump to meet with al-Sharaa

‘The President agreed to say hello to the Syrian President while in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,’ a White House official said.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Elon Musk spoke to a Saudi investment forum shortly before President Donald Trump arrived to address the group.

The richest man in the world thanked the Kingdom for approving the use of Starlink, his internet provider satellites.

And he also had an announcement: he’s bringing robo-taxis to Saudi Arabia.

‘You can think of a car or future cars as being robots on four wheels. And, you know, I think it would be very exciting to have autonomous vehicles here in the Kingdom,’ Musk said.

The CEO got a warm welcome from the group. He only spoke for about five minutes.

President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a defense and security partnership worth about $142 billion.

The White House called it the ‘largest defense sales agreement in history’ but offered no other details on what the deal entails other than ‘providing Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms.’

‘This deal represents a significant investment in Saudi Arabia’s defense and regional security, built on American systems and training,’ the Trump administration said.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

While President Donald Trump travels abroad to secure investments and economic deals, Meta, known for its Facebook and Instagram platforms, announced it has contributed half a trillion dollars to the U.S. economy.

‘A new Meta study-which measured how ads on our platform drive purchases- shows the impact of Meta’s AI-driven ad technologies on America’s economy, businesses and workers,’ Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, said in a statement.

‘In the United States, Meta’s personalized advertising technologies were linked to nearly $550 billion in economic activity and 3.4 million jobs in 2024.’

The release seeks to highlight how the Zuckerberg-led business is investing in the U.S. amid Trump’s search for foreign investments.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud signed several memorandums of understanding as part of a series of investments Trump has wanted from the Saudis.

Trump pushed for $1 trillion but the Saudis only gave $600 billion.

The signed agreements focus on several areas, including energy, defense, and infection diseases.

And one MOU includes the cute, fuzzy kind. The Smithsonian Zoo has agreed to help the Saudis with the conservation of the Arabian leopard, a critically endangered species.

The National Zoo in Washington D.C. will help the animal, the smallest of the leopard species, with its breeding program.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Former President Joe Biden , 82, has a ‘small nodule’ on his prostate that needs ‘further evaluation’, according to multiple reports.

It was found during ‘a routine physical exam,’ a spokesperson for Biden told ABC News.

Biden left office as the oldest serving president in U.S. history – and it’s common for those of the his age to experience prostate issues.

A nodule is a firm lump or swelling that can develop throughout the body. While they can be benign and harmless, some can be associated with bigger health concerns like infections or cancer.

Questions over the former president’s age, health and fitness for such an important office ultimately led him to ditch his reelection campaign.

President Donald Trump called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a ‘friend’ during their meeting in Riyadh.

‘Number one, I like visiting with you, and we’ve known each other very well, and I really believe we like each other a lot,’ Trump told the prince.

‘And number two, we in the United States, we’ve got tremendous investment and tremendous jobs.’

Trump is on a mission to get the Saudis to invest $1 trillion into the United States.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Elon Musk may be winding down his time in Washington D.C. but he’s staying close to Donald Trump’s side, including joining the president on his Middle East trip.

Musk and several of the biggest names in American businesses attended a Saudi-U.S. investment forum in Riyadh on Tuesday, joining Trump and the Saudi crown prince for a lavish luncheon.

The Tesla founder traveled to Saudi Arabia independently of Air Force One. He is, however, listed as one of the speaker’s at Trump’s forum. Trump introduced Musk to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

A crowd of the who’s who on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley also is there, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altma, Musk’s brother Kimbal, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Amazon’s Andy Jassy, Google’s Ruth Porat, and Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Donald Trump has brushed off criticism about accepting a lavish $400 million double-decker jet as a gift from the Qatari Royal Family for possible use as Air Force One.

But, alongside the ethics concerns are the security ones.

Retrofitting the 13-year-old aircraft to current Air Force One requirements would take years of work and billions of dollars.

For a plane to bear the presidential moniker, it needs an array of communication and satellite upgrades, most of which are classified.

And former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall pointed out to the Washington Post: ‘We would have to be sure nobody had planted bugs on the airplane.’

All of this could take years. But Trump could wave the requirements if he’d like to use the plane while in office. He toured the plane (see above) when it was parked at the Palm Beach airport in February.

Boeing is outfitting two 747s to serve as Air Force One but the project has faced costly and years-long delays, much to Trump’s frustration.

President Donald Trump received the royal welcome in Saudi Arabia, his first major overseas trip of his second term.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud gave Trump the kind of reception the president adores – an elaborate ceremony featuring military might, escorts on horse back for the Beast, and a royal purple carpet. The national anthems of both nations played.

Trump, in a purple tie for the occasion, chatted amiably with MBS, as the Saudi Crown Prince is known. Formal introductions were made of the delegations and an elaborate coffee and tea ceremony took place.

Victoria Churchill, U.S. Political Reporter in Washington, D.C.

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pledged to build a new air traffic control system in three to four years, if Congress goes along with his plans.

‘Congress has to fund a massive bill around our airspace and our air traffic control,’ Duffy noted.

He added that the creation of a new air traffic control system would cost ‘billions and billions of dollars.’

Just a week after Trump took office, the deadly collision of a military helicopter and a passenger jet at Reagan National Airport just outside of the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C., gripped the nation and left no survivors.

A radar outage at Newark Liberty International Airport last week caused delays and also prompted mass cancellations.