PinnedUpdated Nov. 18, 2025, 10:45 a.m. ETPresident Trump will welcome Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to the White House on Tuesday, rolling out state-visit-level pomp for a leader intent on acquiring stealth fighter jets, security assurances and economic promises from his host.Prince Mohammed will arrive at the White House with some of his objectives already accomplished: Mr. Trump said on Monday that he intended to sell F-35 fighter jets to the kingdom, ignoring concerns raised by the Pentagon about the risks involved with selling the technology to an ally that has a security partnership with China.The visit represents a striking diplomatic turnabout for the crown prince, who has not been on U.S. soil since 2018, the same year that a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents in Istanbul. During the Biden administration, U.S. intelligence officials released a report determining that the crown prince had ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, but the White House declined to take direct action against him.Prince Mohammed has denied involvement, and Mr. Trump has treated him not as a pariah but as a business partner. Before the visit, a host of other U.S.-Saudi agreements were in process, including one on artificial intelligence, a mutual defense pact and an agreement that would eventually offer Saudi Arabia access to the United States’ nuclear technology.On his end, Mr. Trump is prepared to promote the details of an earlier promise by the kingdom to invest some $600 billion in the United States, an agreement the White House announced when the president visited Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in May.Here’s what else to know:Red-carpet welcome: According to a White House official familiar with the planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it, Prince Mohammed is not receiving a state visit because he is not the head of state, a distinction that lies with his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz. Still, the visit comes with all the trappings of one. Prince Mohammed will be treated to a welcome ceremony and a black-tie dinner at the White House, with business leaders and lawmakers, later on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he will travel with Mr. Trump to a business investment conference in Washington.A.I. and nuclear power: The two leaders are prepared to sign deals related to bolstering Saudi Arabia’s artificial intelligence industry by investing in American technology, as well as move forward with an agreement to proceed with plans that would eventually allow the Saudis to develop nuclear power, potentially paving the way for allowing the kingdom to enrich uranium.Military deals: Mr. Trump’s willingness to sell American-made military technology must first overcome production bottlenecks and get congressional approval. (Prince Mohammed is expected to meet with congressional leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, while he is in Washington.) Mr. Trump is likely to encounter criticism from other allies, namely Israel, for his willingness to sell advanced U.S. military technology to the Saudis. There are also concerns that China could eventually gain access to it.Family business: This week, the Trump Organization and its Saudi-based development partner, Dar Al Arkan, announced a new project allowing cryptocurrency investors to buy into Trump-branded real estate projects using digital tokens that can be bought and sold on a blockchain platform. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, runs a private equity firm that has taken $2 billion from a fund led by the crown prince.Israel: Trump administration officials — riding high on the truce brokered between Israel and Hamas in October, and the U.N. Security Council’s approval on Monday of Mr. Trump’s peace plan for Gaza — may repeat their desire for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, a set of diplomatic agreements that normalized relations between Israel and three Arab states during the first Trump administration. Those proposals are certain to be blocked, for now, by a crown prince who has been unmoved by the tenuous nature of the Gaza cease-fire.Nov. 18, 2025, 10:42 a.m. ETJamal Khashoggi in Manama, Bahrain, in 2014.Credit...Mohammed Al-Shaikh/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSoon after Saudi Arabia’s crown prince last visited the United States in 2018, Saudi government agents killed Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. As gruesome details about Mr. Khashoggi’s death emerged, a furor erupted around the world.Seven years later, as the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, arrived in Washington on Tuesday to meet with President Trump, any trace of global censure was long behind him.Mr. Khashoggi was a Saudi government insider and writer who was critical of Prince Mohammed in columns he wrote for The Post. He had gone into self-imposed exile, settling as a legal permanent resident of Virginia, as Prince Mohammed oversaw a domestic crackdown on dissent in his country.A U.S. intelligence report determined that Prince Mohammed had likely ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing. The prince denied prior knowledge of the operation, but accepted ultimate responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.For a relatively brief period, he was an international pariah. Critics of Prince Mohammed, who is often referred to by his initials, MBS, took to calling him “Mister Bone Saw,” in reference to the dismemberment of Mr. Khashoggi. Even members of his own family quietly expressed concern.But Mr. Trump, then in his first term as president, was among the prince’s most powerful defenders. He issued a statement weeks after the killing saying that the kingdom’s relationship with the United States remained strong. “It could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Mr. Trump declared.VideoKilling Khashoggi: How a Brutal Saudi Hit Job UnfoldedAn autopsy expert. A lookalike. A black van. Our video investigation follows the movements of the 15-man Saudi hit team that killed and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Within months, bankers and corporate executives who had steered clear of Saudi Arabia after the killing had returned to visit. Then world leaders came back, one by one. In 2019, Japan’s prime minister at the time, Shinzo Abe, had a warm meeting with Prince Mohammed.Even former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — who had pledged on the campaign trail in 2020 to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah state — flew to the kingdom to meet with the prince two years later, when he needed his help to lower global oil prices.In May, Mr. Trump made Saudi Arabia the destination for the first major overseas trip of his second term. “Over the past eight years, Saudi Arabia has proved the critics totally wrong,” Mr. Trump declared during the visit.In that time, Prince Mohammed has overseen a dramatic loosening of religious restrictions in the kingdom, allowing greater social freedoms — particularly for women — while increasing political repression.Today, his main focus is no longer consolidating power but diversifying Saudi Arabia’s economy. The deadline for his “Vision 2030” program to reduce the kingdom’s oil dependence is looming.Amnesty International said in a statement released last week that there had still been “no justice” for Mr. Khashoggi, and that the meeting between Prince Mohammed and Mr. Trump comes as “human rights conditions in both Saudi Arabia and the United States continue to worsen.”Nov. 18, 2025, 9:56 a.m. ETPresident Trump’s plan to sell F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia evoked worry in Israel, which is the only Middle Eastern country currently known to possess the advanced stealth fighter, giving it an edge over its neighbors. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the possible sale. But opposition lawmakers were quick to blame Netanyahu, saying he had failed to successfully lobby the Trump administration against it.“The Israeli government has lost its ability to influence decisions critical to national security,” said Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief of staff-turned-politician.Nov. 18, 2025, 9:26 a.m. ETPresident Trump, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Jerry Inzerillo at a model of the proposed Diriyah development during a state dinner in Saudi Arabia in May.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesThe leveraging of political relationships for personal profit is ordinary in the Persian Gulf, where hereditary ruling families hold near-total power and the term “conflict of interest” carries little weight.But the mixing of politics and profitmaking during President Trump’s second term has shattered American norms, shocking scholars who study ethics and corruption. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, engaging in sensitive national security talks with a foreign leader who also oversees a major construction project, known as Diriyah, that is in talks over a potential deal with the Trump family business.Even if that deal never comes to fruition, the Trump family’s real estate and other business interests in Saudi Arabia have flourished during his second term.Since Mr. Trump’s election a year ago, Dar Global, a business partner of the Trump Organization that has close ties to the Saudi government, has announced at least four Trump-branded developments in Saudi Arabia. Other business deals involving Mr. Trump’s family and the Saudi government predate the election.Among the Trump family’s business ties in the kingdom are:Diriyah: The Trump Organization is in negotiations that could bring a Trump-branded property to one of Saudi Arabia’s largest government-owned real estate developments. “Nothing announced yet, but soon to be,” Jerry Inzerillo, the chief executive of the Saudi company leading the $63 billion project — and a longtime friend of Mr. Trump — said in an interview. The chairman of Diriyah’s board is Prince Mohammed himself.Trump-branded projects: A Trump tower is planned for the coastal city of Jeddah, and two projects have been disclosed in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. In September, Dar Global announced that it would also build a “Trump Plaza” development in Jeddah, describing it as a $1 billion project with “premium residences,” office space and a “Central Park-inspired green spine.”Golf: LIV Golf, a professional league backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, has hosted tournaments at the Trump National Doral Golf Club near Miami.Jared Kushner: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has contributed $2 billion to an investment fund run by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, who cultivated close ties to Prince Mohammed during the president’s first term. In September, Mr. Kushner’s firm and the Saudi sovereign fund teamed up with another investor in an agreement to take the video game publisher Electronic Arts private. That deal is valued at around $55 billion. If completed, it would be the largest leveraged buyout ever.Dar Global, the Trump Organization and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.Mr. Kushner, for his part, defended his deals in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview last month alongside Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East peace envoy — a real estate developer whose family also has significant business interests in the Gulf.“What people call conflicts of interests, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world,” Mr. Kushner said.Each Trump-branded real estate venture that Dar Global undertakes generates licensing fees for using the Trump name. Dar Global paid the Trump Organization $21.9 million in such fees last year, according to Mr. Trump’s financial disclosure. Some of that money goes to the president himself.“Branding and licensing deals are a way for the Saudi government to make direct payments to the Trump family in exchange for no work or services provided,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, a government ethics watchdog group. “These arrangements are not just ethically bankrupt — they fundamentally compromise U.S. foreign policy.”Dar Global’s newest Trump-branded project announcement came on Monday: A Trump hotel in the Maldives. The development will be “tokenized” — allowing investors to purchase fractional interests in the property via digital tokens that can be bought and sold on a blockchain platform.That model could make it much harder to track the identities of investors in the project, opening up yet more opportunities for foreign players to try to help enrich the Trump family and its business partners.Rebecca R. Ruiz contributed reporting from London.Nov. 17, 2025, 4:48 p.m. ETVideoTrump Announces U.S. Will Sell F-35s to Saudi ArabiaPresident Trump told reporters on Monday that he planned to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, against the guidance from national security officials in his own administration. The Pentagon has expressed concerns that this could create an opportunity for China to steal the advanced fighter jets’ technology.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesPresident Trump said on Monday that he planned to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite concerns from national security officials in his administration that a sale could create an opportunity for China to steal the planes’ advanced technology.“We will be doing that, we’ll be selling F-35s,” Mr. Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office, explaining that the Saudis “want to buy them, they’ve been a great ally.”Mr. Trump’s announcement came on the eve of a White House visit from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, during his first trip to the United States in more than seven years. Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, and U.S. officials are expected to discuss a Saudi purchase of 48 of the fighter jets and a potential mutual defense agreement.The F-35 is made primarily by the defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which produces anywhere from 150 to 190 of the warplanes per year. About 20 countries either have or have ordered the planes, which currently cost about $80 million to $110 million each, depending on the model, according to recent contracts.A 2024 study from the Government Accountability Office found that the cost of sustaining a fleet of the warplanes, which are designed to last for decades with normal use, can be far higher.Saudi Arabia has long been the biggest purchaser of American weapons. But its conduct on the world stage has made some in government wary of the potential national security implications of giving Riyadh unfettered access to some of the United States’ most sensitive stealth technology.A recent report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, part of the Pentagon, raised concerns that China would be able to access F-35 technology if the United States were to finalize a deal to sell Saudi Arabia the warplanes, as Riyadh and Beijing have a security partnership.Officials have also raised concerns that such a sale could compromise Israel’s regional “qualitative military edge” as the only country in the Middle East that currently has F-35s in its war arsenal. Israel has been pushing for the Trump administration to broker a deal to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, a goal that was showing some promise before Hamas’s deadly invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.The bloody years of hostilities that ensued in Gaza have largely ended the prospect of such a pact. The Trump administration does not appear to have pressed Saudi Arabia to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for approval of the F-35 sale. And there have been no indications that Saudi Arabia plans to normalize ties with Israel soon, given the anger among many Arabs over Israel’s war in Gaza.Some Republican lawmakers are uneasy about allowing the F-35 sale to go through without Saudi Arabia’s normalization with Israel, according to aides familiar with those discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations about potential legislation that is not yet before Congress. And the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has been lobbying members of Congress against it absent that condition.By law, Congress will have an opportunity to block the sale, even if the Trump administration approves it. But despite a litany of objections to Saudi Arabia’s conduct in recent years — particularly concerning the actions of its crown prince — lawmakers have had little success in constraining arms deals. And Mr. Trump has shown a willingness to go around whatever roadblocks lawmakers try to put up.In 2019, the first Trump administration invoked the president’s emergency powers to bypass Congress’s power to review an $8.1 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and a number of other countries. Weeks later, Mr. Trump vetoed bipartisan resolutions aimed at blocking the sale of some of those weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.At the time, lawmakers in both parties were angry about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist who was killed by agents at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. U.S. intelligence later determined that the crown prince had approved the assassination.Lawmakers were also becoming increasingly frustrated with the crown prince over Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign during Yemen’s civil war, which human rights organizations faulted for worsening an already crippling humanitarian crisis.Democrats have continued to periodically raise concerns about Saudi Arabia’s alleged human rights abuses. But during the Biden administration, even some of Saudi Arabia’s sharpest Democrat critics seemed willing to hear out the White House as it tried to reset relations with the kingdom through talks on normalization with Israel, a mutual defense pact and helping Riyadh set up a civilian nuclear program.Democrats are likely to push back against Mr. Trump’s plans to sell F-35 warplanes to Saudi Arabia. But despite the misgivings of some in their party, several senior Republicans — including Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — are expected to back the move, given their previous support for Mr. Trump’s efforts to sell advanced weapons to Saudi Arabia as a means of countering Iran.Robert Jimison and Edward Wong contributed reporting.