Donald Trump is on the final day of his Middle East tour. The White House schedule shows he will return to Washington despite previously labelling his travel plans as “destination unknown”. Follow live and listen to Trump 100 below as you scroll.
Friday 16 May 2025 08:54, UK
Back to Abu Dhabi, where Donald Trump has been meeting and greeting businesses, who were talking up their investments from the United Arab Emirates in the US.
He started with energy, with the giant screen in front of him titled “Making Energy Great Again”.
Sultan al Jaber, the head of UAE oil giant ADNOC, told Trump that the Gulf Arab state and the US plan to spend $440bn in the energy sector until 2035.
At the end of the presentation, Trump was gifted a box containing oil.
He was quick to open it and turn towards the camera before cracking a joke, saying “this is one drop of oil”.
Trump was later taken to a screen showing the aviation sector, and spoke of his love for Boeing planes.
“It’s just my opinion, but Boeing makes the best planes,” he said.
“They’ve had some headaches over the last few years, but they make the best planes.”
Away from Abu Dhabi for a moment, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has touched down in Istanbul.
He’s leading a US delegation in talks with Turkey and Ukraine before Russian and Ukrainian officials meet later this morning.
You can also follow updates in our live page below.
Here’s the scene inside the presidential palace Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi, where Donald Trump has just arrived and is shaking hands with officials.
He is due to be speaking at a US-UAE business council breakfast roundtable – that event had been scheduled for 7.50am UK time, although it appears timings have slipped.
We’ll bring you live text updates once things get going.
As we told you earlier, the White House schedule shows Donald Trump will be speaking shortly at a US-UAE business council breakfast roundtable (see 6.13 post).
It’s the first time we’ll hear from Trump on what is the final day of his Middle East tour, although it appears things are running behind schedule.
We’ll be providing live text updates when things get under way.
Donald Trump covered a range of topics during his events in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates yesterday on the second day of his Middle East tour.
If you’re just catching up, here’s a summary of what the US president said:
By Adam Parsons, Europe correspondent
So is this the beginning of the end, the end of the beginning or just a bit of pointless pantomime? Or might it be all of them, depending on your point of view?
On the one hand, Ukraine’s leader has turned up for peace talks with a strong backroom team and a desire to negotiate over the war.
From his perspective, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the bluff of Vladimir Putin.
“You said you wanted to talk, so here I am,”is the message.
But Putin is, for the moment at least, nowhere to be seen, and neither are the members of his very top team.
No Sergei Lavrov, for instance, the foreign minister who has sourly dismissed these negotiations as being blighted by “Western puppeteers” controlling Zelenskyy, who he described as “a pathetic person”.
So is that bluster a sign of absolute genuine contempt, or a negotiating tactic? Probably both.
More on those Russia-Ukraine peace talks over in Turkey, and US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke to the media after attending a NATO meeting of foreign ministers.
He confirmed he will be meeting with Turkey’s foreign minister and a delegation from Ukraine in Istanbul today.
It comes as officials from Ukraine and Russia were due to meet for direct talks yesterday, but Rubio said the US “doesn’t have high expectations” for the negotiations.
“It’s my assessment that I don’t think we’re going to have a breakthrough here until the president [Trump] and President Putin interact directly on this topic,” he said.
Watch Rubio speak after yesterday’s NATO meeting
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at the level of delegation sent by Russia, calling them “stand-in props”. Echoing these sentiments, Rubio said the level of the team sent by Russia “does not indicate a breakthrough”.
“I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m 100% wrong,” Rubio adds. “I hope tomorrow the news says they’ve agreed a ceasefire. But it’s not my assessment.”
Rubio added that the US will decide on a timeline for a potential Trump-Putin meeting once talks in Istanbul have wrapped up.
We’ve just brought you the key timings of Donald Trump’s day, which show he’s set to return to Washington after he leaves the United Arab Emirates.
But the US president was coy when asked where he’d be heading after his Middle East tour yesterday.
“We’ll be leaving tomorrow,” he told reporters.
“It’s almost ‘destination unknown’. We’re getting calls, ‘could you be here? Could you be there?’ But we’re probably going back to Washington DC.”
It comes as there are calls for him to join Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey, which a US delegation will attend.
Our previous post shows Trump is set to arrive back at the White House in the early hours of tomorrow morning via a brief stop in the UK.
While it may be the last day of Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East, he still has a schedule of events before leaving the United Arab Emirates.
Here are all the key UK timings for when we expect to see the US president:
Welcome back to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s last day on his tour of the Middle East.
The visit has taken him to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – which he will be leaving later today.
Yesterday, Trump spoke to US troops at a strategic air base in Qatar, where he vowed to “never hesitate to wield American power”.
He was then given a grand welcome to Abu Dhabi and a private tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which he described as an “honour”.
That was before yet another lavish state dinner, which has become a theme of Trump’s Middle East tour.
Stay with us as we bring you updates from the US president’s last day of events before he heads back to Washington.
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Trump live: US president expected to return to White House after leaving UAE despite 'destination unknown' comments – Sky News
