President Donald Trump began his four-day trip to the Middle East on Tuesday. He visited Saudi Arabia's leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. They talked about US efforts to stop Iran's nuclear program, end the war in Gaza, keep oil prices low, and other things.

Prince Mohammed gave a warm welcome to Trump when he arrived from Air Force One, starting his tour of the Middle East.

After that, the two leaders went to a large room at the Riyadh airport. There, attendants wearing ceremonial gun-belts gave Trump and his group traditional Arabic coffee.

The impressive ceremony started before Trump's plane even touched the ground. Saudi fighter jets flew alongside his plane as it neared the capital city.

Trump and Prince Mohammed were planning to have lunch at the Royal Court. Many important business leaders were asked to come, like Stephen Schwarzman from Blackstone, Larry Fink from BlackRock, and Elon Musk from Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk is also in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency. This is a new and debated project that aims to find and stop waste, fraud, and misuse of money in the U.S. government.

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What to know about Saudi Arabia and the US possibly working together on nuclear power

Trump goes to the Middle East as problems in the area become more serious.

Saudi oil company Aramco made $26 billion in profit in the first three months of the year. This is 4.6% less than they made in the same time last year.

Later, the crown prince will honor Trump with a special dinner. Trump is also planned to attend a U.S.-Saudi investment conference on Tuesday.

Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said that when Saudis and Americans work together, good things often happen, and sometimes even great things.

Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ countries have helped President Trump early in his second term by producing more oil. Trump believes that cheap energy is important for reducing prices and stopping inflation for Americans. He has also said that lower oil prices will help end the war in Ukraine more quickly.

However, Saudi Arabia's economy still relies a lot on oil. The country needs the price of oil to be between $96 and $98 a barrel to balance its budget. It's not clear how long OPEC+, which is led by Saudi Arabia, will continue to produce so much oil. On Monday, the price of Brent crude oil was $64.77.

One problem for the Gulf countries when oil prices fall is that it doesn't stop their plans to improve their economies, but it definitely makes these plans more difficult.

Trump chose Saudi Arabia for his first trip abroad because it promised large investments in the US, but he actually went to Italy first last month for the Pope's funeral.

The president will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. In these countries, the Trump Organization, which Trump's two older sons manage, is working on big building projects. For example, they are building a tall tower in Jeddah, a fancy hotel in Dubai, and a golf course with houses in Qatar.

Trump wants to show that his way of making deals in international politics is successful. This is happening while Democrats criticize him. They say his trade conflicts and how he handles Russia's war in Ukraine are making the United States separate from its allies.

He is expected to announce agreements with three rich countries. These agreements will include artificial intelligence, more energy cooperation, and maybe new weapon sales to Saudi Arabia. This comes after the government earlier this month allowed the sale of $3.5 billion worth of air-to-air missiles for Saudi Arabia's fighter planes.

But when Trump arrived in the Middle East, his main allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, did not completely agree with his plan.

Before the trip, Trump announced that the U.S. was stopping its air attacks against the Houthis in Yemen. He said the rebels, who are supported by Iran, had promised to stop attacking ships on an important international trade route.

The government didn't tell Israel about the agreement before Trump announced it publicly, even though the Houthis are still attacking Israel. This was another time Trump didn't tell Israel about his government's talks with their shared enemies.

In March, the US government didn't tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the talks with Hamas about the war in Gaza until they had already started. Also, Netanyahu only found out about the US nuclear talks with Iran when Trump announced them during his visit last month.

"Israel will protect itself," Netanyahu said last week after Trump announced a stop to fighting with the Houthis. "If others, like our American friends, help us, that would be even better."

William Wechsler, a senior director at the Atlantic Council, said it was surprising that Trump did not visit Israel on his first trip to the Middle East.

Wechsler said the main point, based on the current schedule, is that the Gulf governments are better friends to President Trump right now than the current government of Israel.

At the same time, Trump wants to try again to make relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the main powers in the Middle East, normal. Trump's previous work, called the Abraham Accords, resulted in Sudan, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco agreeing to have normal relations with Israel.

But Saudi Arabia has clearly stated that for peace with Israel, it wants security guarantees from the U.S., help with its nuclear energy program, and progress towards a Palestinian state. It seems unlikely this will happen soon, especially with the war between Israel and Hamas continuing and Israel threatening to destroy and occupy Gaza.

Last week, Prince Mohammed welcomed Palestinian Vice President Hussein Sheikh to Jeddah. This was the Vice President's first visit outside his country since he started his job in April.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a researcher, said the Saudi prince seemed to be telling Trump that Saudi Arabia needs to see progress on a Palestinian state before they can seriously consider a peace deal with Israel.

Abdul-Hussain said that the Saudis are clearly showing what they plan to do, and this is a way of saying they will not agree to make peace.