Executives including Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, were in Saudi Arabia for for new investments. That, not tariffs, is what they wanted from Trump.

President Donald Trump is to meet with the new Syrian leader, a onetime insurgent, before wrapping up his visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and heading to Qatar, the second leg of his three-nation Middle East tour this week.

Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and attended a US-Saudi investment forum along with Elon Musk and other top CEOs.

The American leader dedicated much of his speech to praising the Saudi kingdom, with which he has enjoyed warm relations for years. "Trump and MBS? It's a bromance for the ages," one summit attendee told CNBC,

Although Trump recently attended the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, Saudi Arabia was originally intended to be his initial overseas destination, just like in his first term. It served as a gilded debut for a foreign policy focused on securing cash infusions for American businesses.

The meeting, on the sidelines of Trump sitting with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family.

President Donald Trump signed a $600 billion agreement with Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that includes a major defense contract and substantial investments in artificial intelligence—as U.S. business executives made their own set of deals at a conference in the backdrop of Trump’s visit to Riyadh, the first stop on his four-day tour of the Middle East.