Takeaways from Trump's White House meeting with Saudi crown prince: Deals and bromance

WASHINGTON (AP) — A jovial President Donald Trump held a warm and friendly meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at the White House, packed with plenty of handshakes and back pats. He brushed aside questions about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, praised the prince for his statesmanship and announced hundreds of billions of dollars in new Saudi investment in the United States.

The White House rolled out plenty of pomp for the Saudi royal on Tuesday, dispatching fighter jets that the two leaders watched from a red carpet, parading out an honor guard on horseback and giving a lavish dinner in the East Room.

In a sitdown in the Oval Office that took place just seven years after Prince Mohammad was implicated by U.S. intelligence agencies in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump and the prince took numerous questions from reporters — one of whom was repeatedly insulted by Trump — on everything from commerce to the sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to Riyadh.

Here is a look at some of the takeaways from the visit:

Trump had previewed his decision to sell F-35s on Sunday but formalized it before the prince on Tuesday when he said the approval was complete and that Israel’s fears about maintaining its qualitative military edge in the Middle East would be addressed.

Details of the deal were not immediately clear, but some in the Pentagon and other agencies have opposed the sale because of the potential for advanced technology being shared with China, which also has close ties with Saudi Arabia.

“As far as I’m concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line,” Trump said of Saudi Arabia and Israel, which already has F-35s. “Israel’s aware and they’re going to be very happy.”

Israeli officials have suggested that they would not be opposed to Saudi Arabia getting F-35s as long as Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords framework.

The Saudis have said they would join the Abraham Accords but only after there is a credible and guaranteed path to Palestinian statehood, a position Prince Mohammad repeated in the meeting.

“We want to be part of the Abraham Accords, but we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path of two-state solution,” he said. “We’re going to work on that to be sure that we come prepared for the situation as soon as possible to have that.”

Trump also said the U.S. and Saudi Arabia would complete a broader agreement on military and security issues during the visit and that the U.S. would proceed with a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, about which Israel also has raised concerns.

The two nations also signed a deal that calls for the Saudis to purchase nearly 300 tanks from the U.S.

At the dinner Tuesday night, Trump announced he was designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, a largely symbolic move that gives foreign partners some defense, trade and security cooperation benefits.

Tuesday’s meeting was the first White House visit for the crown prince since Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist, was killed and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018.

U.S. intelligence said Prince Mohammad likely approved the slaying.

In a remarkable scene in the Oval Office, the prince, nicknamed MBS, faced questions from reporters, something not typical for the de facto head of the absolute monarchy where dissent is criminalized.

He was asked about Khashoggi's slaying along with the role that Saudi citizens played in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Trump, however, lashed out at the reporter for the line of questioning.

Trump called Khashoggi, a Saudi pro-democracy activist, “extremely controversial” and said “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he (the crown prince) knew nothing about it and we can leave it at that.”

Prince Mohammad, who has denied involvement in Khashoggi's killing, replied that his government had taken action.

“It’s been painful for us in Saudi Arabia,” he said. “We did all the right steps of investigation, etc., in Saudi Arabia, and we’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happens like that again. And it’s painful, and it was a huge mistake.”

Trump also commended the Saudi leader for strides made by the kingdom on human rights without providing any specific detail but presumably referring to reforms relating to women’s rights. “What’s he done is incredible in terms of human rights and everything else,” Trump said.

Trump greeted Prince Mohammed at the White House’s South Lawn entrance with a handshake and arm slung over the prince's shoulder. Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for the Saudi leader, with a military band on hand and a flyover by U.S. military planes, before showing the crown prince his decorations along the White House Colonnade.

“We have a extremely respected man in the Oval Office today,” Trump said at the top of meeting, calling the prince “a friend of mine for a very long time.”

Trump also castigated his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, for greeting Prince Mohammed with a fist bump during his 2022 visit to Saudi Arabia.

“When you get out of the plane and you get the future king — and a man who is one of the most respected people in the world — you shake his hand, you don’t give him a fist bump, right?” Trump said. “Trump doesn’t give a fist bump. I grab that hand” — and he did just that.

At the dinner Tuesday night, the tuxedo-clad president and first lady Melania Trump welcomed the crown prince back on the red carpet again, before feting him at a dinner attended by tech titans. Among them were Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with golfer Bryson DeChambeau and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.

They dined on a pistachio-crusted rack of lamb, followed by a couverture mousse pear for dessert.

Prince Mohammad told Trump that his country would be increasing its financial commitments to the U.S. from $600 billion, which was announced during the president’s trip to Riyadh in May, to $1 trillion.

Details of those deals were not immediately clear but are expected to include investments in a variety of American businesses, including artificial Intelligence, as well as the purchase of jet engines and other equipment.

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

This story was first published on Nov. 18, 2025. It was updated on Nov. 19, 2025, to make clear that Musk is CEO of Tesla and was not technically present at the founding of the company but was an early investor and is listed on the Tesla website as a co-founder.

President Donald Trump points to a reporter as he meets Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman watch a flight of F-35's and F-15's fly over during a welcome ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump meets Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman prepare to take their seats during a dinner in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump welcomes Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is not immune from civil claims that he incited a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan, 6, 2021, a federal judge has ruled in one of the last unresolved legal cases stemming from the riot.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled Tuesday that Trump's remarks at his “Stop the Steal” rally, held on the Ellipse near the White House shortly before the siege began, “plausibly” were inciting words that are not protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

The Republican president is not shielded from liability for much of his Jan. 6 conduct, including that speech and many of his social media posts that day, according to the judge. But Mehta said Trump cannot be held liable for his official acts that day, including his Rose Garden remarks during the riot and his interactions with Justice Department officials.

“President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” Mehta wrote. “The content of the Ellipse Speech confirms that it is not covered by official-acts immunity."

The decision is not the court's first ruling that Trump can be held liable for the violence at the Capitol and it is unlikely to be the last given the near-certainty of an appeal. But the 79-page ruling sets the stage for a possible civil trial in the same courthouse where Trump was charged with crimes for his Jan. 6 conduct, before his 2024 election ended the prosecution.

Mehta previously refused to dismiss the claims against Trump in a February 2022 ruling that Trump was not entitled to presidential immunity from the claims brought by Democratic members of Congress and law enforcement officers who guarded the Capitol on Jan. 6. In that decision, Mehta also concluded that Trump’s words during his rally speech plausibly amounted to incitement and were not protected by the First Amendment.

The case returned to Mehta after an appeals court ruling upheld his 2022 decision. He said Tuesday's ruling on immunity falls under a more "rigorous" legal standard at this later stage in the litigation.

Mehta, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, said his latest decision is not a “final pronouncement on immunity for any particular act.”

“President Trump remains free to reassert official-acts immunity as a defense at trial. But the burden will remain his and will be subject to a higher standard of proof,” the judge wrote.

Trump spoke to a crowd of his supporters at the rally before the mob’s attack disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Trump. Trump closed out his speech by saying, “We fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Trump’s lawyers argued that Trump's conduct on Jan. 6 meets the threshold for presidential immunity.

The plaintiffs contended that Trump cannot prove he was acting entirely in his official capacity rather than as an office-seeking private individual. They also said the Supreme Court has held that office-seeking conduct falls outside the scope of presidential immunity.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who at that time led the House Homeland Security Committee, sued Trump, Trump's personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers extremist groups over the Jan. 6 riot. Other Democratic members of Congress later joined the litigation, which was consolidated with the officers' claims.

The civil claims survived Trump’s sweeping act of clemency on the first day of his second term, when he pardoned, commuted prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of all 1,500-plus criminal cases stemming from the Capitol siege. More than 100 police officers were injured while defending the Capitol from rioters.

The plaintiffs' legal team includes attorneys from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Damon Hewitt, the group's president and executive director, praised the ruling as a “monumental victory for the rule of law, affirming that no one, including the president of the United States, is above it.”

“The court rightly recognizes that President Trump’s actions leading to the January 6 insurrection fell outside the scope of presidential duties," Hewitt said in a statement. “This ruling is an important step toward accountability for the violent attack on the Capitol and our democracy.”

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from West Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)