US President Donald Trump embarked on his first foreign visit to Saudi Arabia, Israel and global summits in Italy and Belgium on Friday.
As he leaves for Saudi Arabia on Friday afternoon, Trump posted a tweet "Getting ready for my big foreign trip. Will be strongly protecting American interests—that's what I like to do!"
But the political turmoil in Washington over Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey and the simultaneous developments involving allegations of forcing Comey to stop investigating former security adviser Michael Flynn and the appointment of a special counsel to look into the allegations of Russia's interference in the 2016 elections and his presidential campaign's ties to Russia, threatens to overshadow his first overseas trip as President.
With his first stop at Riyadh, Trump will focus on strengthening relations between the Saudis and America.
Trump will then land at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on Monday, May 22 where he will be received in a special ceremony on the tarmac.
He will have meetings with President Reuven Rivlin at the President's Residence in Jerusalem and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump will be the first serving president to visit the Western Wall.
Both Jerusalem and Riyadh will question Trump on the Iran nuclear deal.
In Europe especially, they want to know whether Trump will pull out of the Paris climate accord and want to test his true feelings for Russia, which is seen as a threat in much of Europe.
