By Michael A. Memoli

Tribune Washington Bureau

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—President Donald Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia’s capital Saturday to begin an eight-day foreign tour that will test the new administration’s capacity to manage complex international diplomacy and a growing political crisis at home.

In choosing Saudi Arabia as his first international destination since taking office, Trump found a host eager to offer the warmest possible welcome as its leaders seek to improve relations with the United States.

During a ceremony at the Royal Court, King Salman presented Trump with the nation’s highest honor, the King Abdul Aziz Collar, in recognition of “efforts to strengthen the relationship between the two friendly countries,” and “his quest to enhance security and peace in the region and the world.”

Earlier, Salman greeted Trump on a red carpet at the foot of Air Force One before a flyover of military aircraft honored the visiting president, who has angered Muslims around the world with his proposed travel ban to the nation that houses Islam’s most holy sites.

“It’s a great honor,” Trump told the Saudi leader.

The welcome contrasted with the last visit of a U.S. chief executive, when the king did not greet President Barack Obama at the airport. The Saudis strongly objected to Obama’s nuclear arms control agreement with Iran, a powerful neighbor that the Saudi leaders regard as deeply threatening.

Trump was accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump, who appeared without the head scarf that women in Saudi Arabia customarily wear. When Michelle Obama did likewise in 2015, she was criticized by Trump, who said at the time that the Saudis were “insulted” by her appearance.

Beyond the ceremonies, which included a lunch and dinner, the two leaders signed agreements locking in a new $110 billion package of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and investments by the Arab state in the U.S. economy.

“That was a tremendous day. Tremendous investments in the United States. Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs,” Trump said later.

Some aspects of the arms-sale agreement had been set into motion during the Obama administration.

A White House official said the agreement will support the security of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf region “in the face of Iranian threats,” while reducing the burden on the United States to conduct counterterrorism operations.

In addition to the meeting with the king and the crown prince, Trump also was scheduled to meet with Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s son and a potential rival to the crown prince for the succession.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said aboard Air Force One that the president spent the flight meeting with staff, reading newspapers and working on a speech on Islam he is scheduled to deliver on Sunday to the Arab Islamic Summit.

The rest of the flight was spent getting very little sleep, Priebus said.

Why Gulf Arab leaders are welcoming Trump’s transactional foreign policy

White House officials have alternately been eagerly awaiting the trip and gritting their teeth over its potential pitfalls.

No modern president has attempted such an ambitious debut on the world stage, and Trump’s itinerary — which also includes a two-day visit to Israel, an audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican and participation in NATO and Group of Seven summits — is being carefully choreographed to present Trump as a confident commander in chief.

But Trump’s decision last week to fire FBI Director James B. Comey set off fast-moving developments that turned questions over Russian meddling in the 2016 election and Moscow’s potential influence with key Trump aides into a full-blown crisis.

It was from aboard Air Force One that White House press secretary Sean Spicer responded to a report in the New York Times that Trump told Russian officials in the Oval Office that his decision to fire Comey — whom he described as “crazy, a real nut job” — had relieved “great pressure” on him because of the Russia investigation.

White House officials did not dispute the story, or a separate Washington Post report that an unidentified senior Trump aide is under federal scrutiny as a person of significant interest to the investigation.

“As anyone who’s been involved with any of these trips knows, it’s all hands on deck — especially if you have multiple different stops where multiple different agenda topics need to come up,” said Richard Nephew, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who worked in the State Department under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations and on Obama’s National Security Council.

“There are lots of pitfalls here, starting with the fact that this administration has been, for obvious reasons, pretty distracted.”

Some Saudis see Trump’s visit as the chance for ‘a crucial turning point’ in its relationship with the U.S.

But James Carafano, a foreign policy and national security analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation who advised the president during the campaign and his transition, said a successful trip could be just what the administration needs.

“The great thing about a foreign trip is, to a great extent, you can stage manage it a lot more,” he said. “It does allow the president to detach a little bit from the heated political debate here in the United States and help him lay out how he’s going to engage in two very critical regions in the world.”

Even if the president has been focused elsewhere, his team has been invested in making the trip a success since the administration’s earliest days.

In hopes of ensuring a smooth sequence of public appearances, the White House enlisted the support of veterans of President George W. Bush’s advance teams, overseen by Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin, also a former Bush official.

The Saudis’ hospitality spoke to their eagerness to reset a relationship that became increasingly strained during the Obama administration. On Sunday, they will host two of related meetings focused on fighting terrorism and preventing radicalization, as well as other perceived threats.

“I think there’s an enormous opportunity in Saudi Arabia to bring the whole Arab world together,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, He met last week with other senior members of the committee and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, deputy national security adviser Dina Powell and senior adviser Jared Kushner to discuss the visit.

“They felt very neglected. The Iran agreement in particular was one that really caused them to feel like America’s priorities were not with them. And then you look at the fact that their relationship with Israel has never been better, it is a tremendous opportunity,” Corker said.

Despite Saudi unease with the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts with Iran and Trump’s clear pledge to revisit the deal, Corker said he did not expect the agreement to be a major part of talks.

“I think over time most of the countries would like to see if there’s a way to renegotiate the agreement. Today’s not that time,” he said. “As time goes by over the next couple years, maybe there’s some opportunity for that, but I don’t think that’s what they’re going to focus on.”