WASHINGTON — In a display of pageantry fit for a king, President Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House with full-dress military honors and a dramatic flyover of military to celebrate a $1 trillion partnership.

The Saudi leader was greeted on the South Lawn by an Army mounted honor guard and black horses bearing American and Saudi flags, with six warplanes conducting a flyover of the White House for a touch of military drama as bin Salman reached Trump’s side.

The pomp and circumstance came despite the event not being an official state visit, as bin Salman serves as the prime minister of Saudi Arabia — not the head of state. That role belongs to his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, though bin Salman is considered the county’s de-facto leader. Trump praised the prince, saying they’ve been “really good friends.”

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Inside, the president and crown prince were chummy before reporters in the Oval Office during the visit, with Trump poking fun at bin Salman’s infamous fist bump with former President Joe Biden in 2022 — joking that he is not afraid to touch the Saudi leader as he grabbed his hand.

“Trump doesn’t give a fist bump,” Trump said after shaking the crown prince’s hand in the Oval Office. “I grab that hand. I don’t give a hell where that hand has been, I grab that hand.”

The centerpiece of the visit: Saudi Arabia pledged to increase its US investments from $600 billion to almost $1 trillion — with investments across the US economy and a focus on sectors including artificial intelligence and rare earth materials.

“Today and tomorrow, we are going to announce that we are going to increase that, that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion of investment, real investment and real opportunity in many areas,” bin Salman said.

Trump celebrated the scale of the commitment, saying, “we’re doing numbers that nobody’s ever done.”

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“You know, that’s great. I appreciate that. That’s great,” he said. “…That means investments in plants, in companies, money on Wall Street. And what it really means for everybody, what really counts is jobs. A lot of jobs. We have a lot of jobs.”

Trump further noted that the investment was a reflection of the state of the US economy under his leadership.

“In all fairness, if you didn’t see potential in the US, you wouldn’t be doing it,” he said. “You don’t want to lose money.”

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Details on the defense and minerals investment were not yet available, but the prince told the president the US is the “hottest country on the planet” for foreign investment.

“What you’re creating is not about an opportunity today. It’s also about long term opportunity,” Mohammed said.

Trump has repeatedly spoken about the strategic importance of Saudi investment in the US — and his own Trump Organization has had real estate dealing in Jeddah.

The president brushed off a reporter’s question about whether his family’s business dealings with Saudi Arabia constituted a conflict of interest in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

“I have nothing to do with the family business. I have left and I’ve devoted 100% of my energy [to running this country],” Trump said.

“What my family does is fine. They do business all over. They’ve done very little in Saudi Arabia, actually, though I’m sure they can do a lot, and anything they’ve done has been very good.”

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On defense, Trump indicated that Saudi Arabia would buy F-35 stealth jets, a move that would mark a major policy shift as critics warned that the deal could lead to the highly advanced aircraft ending up in the wrong hands.

The two leaders also suggested deeper cooperation on regional security, including in Gaza, though precise terms have not been publicly disclosed.

Saudi Arabia was among several countries that played a key role in getting Hamas to agree to President Trump’s historic peace plan there last month.

With Post Wires