American presidents have been visiting Saudi Arabia for decades, and the trips have often produced memorable moments — some dramatic, others downright odd.
As President Trump returns to Saudi Arabia, here is a look back at four moments from past presidential trips to visit leaders of the oil-rich Gulf state.
2022: The Biden Fist Bump
The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia appeared to be wilting before President Joseph R. Biden Jr. visited Jeddah in 2022.
Mr. Biden, as a candidate in 2019, had vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah” over the killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the C.I.A. said had been ordered by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
But as Mr. Biden worked in 2022 to manage oil prices, which spiked after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the president took a different tack. Arriving at the Royal Palace, Mr. Biden, grinning slightly, gave the crown prince a fist bump as a bank of cameras rolled.
The Saudi government quickly posted an image of the fist bump on social media. Mr. Biden later told reporters that he had privately confronted Prince Mohammed about the killing, and that the prince “basically said that he was not personally responsible for it.”
Back in Washington, Mr. Biden became impatient when pressed on the fist bump. “Why don’t you guys talk about something that matters?” he chided a reporter.
Within months, Mr. Biden acknowledged that the trip had not produced the surge in Saudi oil production that he had sought.
2017: Trump and the Orb
It looked like something from a children’s movie.
During a visit to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, early in his first term, Mr. Trump found himself laying hands on a glowing white orb.
Beside him, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt also placed their hands on the sphere. An image of the men touching the orb — with the first lady, Melania Trump, looking on — circulated widely on social media, with memes multiplying in short order.
One meme likened the image to that of Saruman, the “Lord of the Rings” villain, tapping into a seeing stone.
But the orb in Riyadh was not, it turned out, magical.
The sphere was a translucent globe, apparently decorative, at a facility filled with computer terminals and devoted to combating extremist ideology.
1974: Nixon Says, ‘We Need Wisdom’
President Richard M. Nixon met a warm reception in Jeddah during a five-nation sweep through the Middle East in the spring of 1974.
Nixon arrived hoping to encourage the country to help reduce oil prices, according to passages of his memoirs published by the Richard Nixon Foundation.
But he also came with another goal — pushing Saudi Arabia to use its considerable regional influence to push for peace in the Middle East.
In remarks at the State Palace, he emphasized to his hosts that he did not come just to win cheaper oil.
“We can use oil, but we need more, something far more than oil,” the president said. “We need wisdom.”
1945: Roosevelt Gives a Wheelchair
Though he did not travel to Saudi soil, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with the founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz al-Saud, on a U.S. warship in the Great Bitter Lake, part of the Suez Canal in Egypt.
Roosevelt charmed the king, who struggled to walk, by presenting him with the gift of a wheelchair.
Source: nytimes.com
