Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s first visit to Saudi Arabia as president for the second time came with some standard fare, like an unbelievably massive arms deal he signed on Tuesday. Less orthodox is the lunch scheduled for today, which featured leading executives in American business and finance as well as a few random hangers-on.
The lunch was part of a summit in which Saudi leaders agreed to a purported investment of $600 billion in American companies, mostly working in tech, artificial intelligence, and, of course, defense contractors. (Of the $600 billion sum, $142 billion will go to American defense firms selling missile systems, training, and the like.) To prepare for the glut of oil money coming their way, the president invited many leaders like Sam Altman of OpenAI; Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir; Jeff Miller, the CEO of Halliburton; Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia; and Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon.
Most of the names on the list make sense. If you’re looking at boosting Saudi investment in U.S., you probably want BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman there. If you’re looking at further investment in American AI, Altman, Huang, and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna are going to be munching apps, too. Obviously, Elon Musk is going to be there. But there are a few standouts. Why the mayor of Miami in Riyadh? What are the CEOs of Coca-Cola or Epic Games doing there? And what about Travis Kalanick, the former bad boss of Uber?
The answer is kind of obvious: Saudi money and/or Trump fealty. For example, Kalanick’s latest venture is a ghost-kitchen company backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund — which is reportedly considering an initial public offering in the Middle East. Or take Miami mayor Francis Suarez, a staunch cryptocurrency booster who has backed the president’s pro-crypto industry policies. Despite leading the 42nd-largest U.S. city, he ended up with a ticket.
Beyond securing the $600 billion promise, Trump, for one, did not seem especially focused at the meeting, commenting on Apple CEO Tim Cook’s absence and bragging about winning “all seven swing states.” But the real question remains this: Why isn’t the McDonald’s CEO there?
Saudi Royal Court now has a mobile McDonald’s serving Trump during his stay pic.twitter.com/Nk5HZitAae
— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress) May 13, 2025
