Saudi Arabia will invest $600 billion in the United States in the coming years, President Donald Trump said on Thursday – before quickly adding that he wanted to see an even higher sum.
“But I’ll be asking the crown prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around 1 trillion. I think they’ll do that because we’ve been very good to them,” Trump said on Thursday in remarks via video link to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Shortly after his inauguration on Monday, Trump had a phone call with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is considered the de facto ruler of the Gulf kingdom.
The White House said it was the first phone call Trump held with a foreign leader in his second term.
Trump’s newly confirmed secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also spoke with the crown prince right at the start of taking up the post.
Trump was asked on his first day in office which country could be the destination of his first overseas trip.
The president noted that in his first term, he travelled to Saudi Arabia first because the country had announced investments of $450 billion at the time.
When asked whether he would go there first again, he said it was possible – if they were willing to invest the same amount or higher.
Trump also told Davos he would put pressure on Saudi Arabia to bring down global oil prices.