President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that there’s “something wrong” with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in response to the senator placing a blanket hold on all Justice Department political nominees.

His remark comes as Schumer is seeking answers related to the Trump administration’s plans to accept a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family to use as Air Force One.

A blanket hold does not mean the Senate is unable to confirm these nominees, but it does force the chamber’s Republican majority to burn valuable floor time to overcome the hold. Only a simple majority vote is needed to overcome the hold.

Schumer demanded the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act Unit “disclose all activities by Qatari foreign agents inside the US that could benefit President Trump or the Trump Organization.”

President Donald Trump received a second day of fanfare at his second destination of a four-day, three-stop Middle Eastern sojourn, treated to displays of camels and red Cybertrucks as he arrived in Doha, Qatar.

A former reality television star, the president is keenly aware of the stagecraft of a presidential visit, and his Qatari hosts pulled out all the stops to welcome him.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani greeted the US president atop a red carpet. And Trump’s motorcade was escorted through the streets of Doha by a cavalry of red Tesla Cybertrucks, a nod to the president’s senior adviser, Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The motorcade was greeted at Amiri Diwan, the administrative offices of the emir, by dozens of mounted camels and Arabian horses.

The emir and the president observed a performance of both countries’ national anthems at a formal arrival ceremony.

Seated in plush, gilded chairs at a tea ceremony, the emir lavished praise on his guest, saying he was “extremely honored” and “very happy” to have the president visit, noting that Trump is “the first American president to officially to visit Qatar.”

Qatar has emerged as a key mediator for a number of conflicts, including efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Trump returned the praise, calling the emir a friend.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he is “always considering secondary sanctions” when asked aboard Air Force One whether he would sanction Russia for its support of Iran or its continued involvement in the war in Ukraine.

“Well again, I don’t want to talk about it, but I’m always considering the secondary sanctions,” Trump said while en route to Qatar.

Trump has said the United States would impose sanctions on Russia if it did not accept an extended ceasefire in its war with Ukraine, writing on social media after a phone call last week with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

However, Trump has voiced optimism about a potential meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin this Thursday for peace talks to end the war on Ukraine, the US president has even suggested he might attend as well.

President Donald Trump arrived in Qatar on Wednesday, his second stop on a three-day tour of the Middle East.

Trump touched down at Hamad International Airport in Doha around 2 p.m. local time. A handful of F-15 fighter jets escorted Air Force One.

Trump was greeted by the emir of Qatar and other top officials before boarding his motorcade.

He just left Saudi Arabia and is scheduled to head to the UAE on Thursday.

President Donald Trump praised interim Syria President Ahmad al-Sharaa after the two held a key meeting Wednesday in Riyadh.

The comments come as the US is exploring the possibility of normalizing diplomatic relations with Syria.

The US president told reporters aboard Air Force One that his meetings with Al-Sharaa went well, adding that he’s “great,” and a “young, attractive, tough guy” with a “strong past.”

Trump said Al-Sharaa has “a real shot” at holding Syria together.

He suggested that the country will eventually join the Abraham Accords, one of the major directives the president offered during their meeting. Al-Sharaa said yes when asked about joining the pact eventually, Trump said.

For background: Al-Sharaa previously founded a militant group known as Jabhat al-Nusra, or “the Victory Front” in English, which pledged allegiance to al Qaeda. But in 2016, he broke away from the terror group, according to the US Center for Naval Analyses.

President Donald Trump continued to express interest in traveling to Turkey for a possible high-stakes meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying Wednesday that Putin would “like me to be there” and it remains “a possibility.”

He continued: “I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there.”

Asked about Putin’s strategy and whether he still feels that the Russian leader is “tapping him along,” as he suggested in a previous post to social media, Trump told reporters he would let them know in a few days.

Putin has not yet agreed to personally attend talks in Turkey set for Thursday, despite proposing it himself. Zelensky has said he wouldn’t hold talks with any Russian representative other than Putin himself.

Trump also predicted there would be “pretty good news” out of the talks.

Trump previously mentioned the possibility of stopping in Turkey during his Middle East trip, saying, “I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen.”

Trump is currently scheduled to be Doha and Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

On the first major international trip of his second term, President Donald Trump has traveled to Saudi Arabia, is now en route to Qatar and will then go to the United Arab Emirates.

But he won’t visit a key US ally: Israel.

And public discussion on the war in Gaza has been notably absent. Trump discussed trade with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and lifted sanctions on Syria after meeting interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, but outwardly the war in Gaza was not a key talking point.

Deadly strikes overnight: At least 56 people were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza overnight, according to the enclave’s health ministry — the majority of them women and children from the Jabalya refugee camp, a nurse at the Indonesian Hospital told CNN. The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the area late Tuesday night after three rockets were fired at southern Israel.

Trump has been clear he wants an end to the war and CNN reported Monday that Israeli officials tried to inquire about the possibility of a stop in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv during his trip. However, a source told CNN that without a ceasefire or a “result” for Trump, he’s not going to visit the country.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Jeremy Diamond contributed reporting.

Syria hailed the meeting between President Ahmad al-Sharaa and US President Donald Trump as “historic” and said the American leader “affirmed his country’s commitment to standing by Syria at this critical juncture.”

“During the meeting, the importance of lifting sanctions on Syria and supporting the recovery and reconstruction process was emphasized,” according to a statement from the Syrian foreign ministry.

Sharaa and Trump were joined in person by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined by phone, the statement said.

Meetings between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Syrian foreign minister will follow, according to the statement.

Remember: An armed rebel alliance — led by Ahmad al-Sharaa’s militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — charged across Syria over 11 days late last year, leading to the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal longtime regime.

US President Donald Trump is en route to Doha, Qatar, as White House journalists reported that Air Force One is wheels up from Saudi Arabia.

Recapping Trump’s trip to Riyadh:

Saudi Arabia was Trump’s first stop on the first major international trip of his second term.

In Riyadh, the president received a welcome fit for a king — a royal-purple-carpeted arrival ceremony with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a 21-gun salute, and a motorcade flanked by Arabian horses, among other details sure to impress Trump, who is finely attuned to the stagecraft of a presidential visit.

He lavished praise on the crown prince and highlighted a number of Saudi investments in US business, joined by top CEOs at a Tuesday lunch representing some of the biggest tech companies. And in turn, the US and Saudi Arabia governments further cemented ties with cooperation agreements on a number of areas, including defense and energy.

But it was a keystone speech Tuesday evening at a Saudi investment forum that made headlines as Trump unexpectedly announced plans to drop punishing sanctions on Syria.

On Wednesday, he met with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and said he was “exploring normalizing relations” with the country, offering a list of directives, including joining the Abraham Accords to normalize ties with Israel.

Trump joined the Gulf Cooperation Council after that meeting, where he lambasted his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, claimed the 2020 election was “rigged,” and took aim at the White House press corps — a striking display in front of a group of regional leaders.

Trump is now headed to Doha, Qatar.

Joining President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia were dozens of CEOs from America’s biggest companies, including Big Tech giants such as Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and IBM’s Arvind Krishna.

The executives offered some of the most coveted must-haves of the global economy: artificial intelligence chips that will power the Middle East’s biggest tech infrastructure projects, seen as crucial to securing the region’s post-oil future.

Some background: Although Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter, the kingdom and neighboring countries are using money from energy sales to diversify their economies. Saudi Arabia has announced that initiatives dubbed “giga-projects” are key to the country’s Vision 2030 plan, which aims to modernize the country and wean its economy off oil.

The deals struck highlight the importance of America’s AI offerings as a key bargaining chip for Trump.

Days before the president’s trip, the Trump administration announced plans to rescind a set of Biden-era curbs meant to keep AI chips out of the hands of foreign adversaries, which would have affected their sale to countries in the region.

Here are some of the deals announced:

Read the full story.

US President Donald Trump’s remarks in Saudi Arabia are a “major shift in US foreign policy” not seen in decades, a Middle East expert said.

“We are practically seeing a Trump doctrine in the making,” Bader Al-Saif, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London, told CNN’s Becky Anderson.

He noted that Trump’s statements echo what Gulf Arab states want, which is that “we can control our region from within and that we need to be listened to.”

Speaking at the Saudi-US investment forum on Tuesday, Trump said that the new generation of Gulf leaders are “transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce not chaos, where it exports technology not terrorism… Not bombing each other out of existence.”

Al-Saif said that the “anti-war component” that came through Trump’s speeches in Riyadh “was a clear nod to what the Gulf is all about,” adding that Israel likely feels left behind.

“If I were Israel, I would feel a FOMO, a fear of missing out kind of feeling,” Al-Said said.

President Donald Trump lambasted his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, claimed the 2020 election was “rigged,” and took aim at the White House press corps as he began a meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council on Wednesday – a striking display in front of a group of regional leaders.

Trump slammed Biden’s policy on Iran, telling his Gulf counterparts, “The Biden administration created havoc and bedlam by basically being incompetent.”

Holding fire on domestic political opponents during overseas trips used to be a sacred norm for American presidents, but Trump has broken that precedent on many occasions.

Trump went on to baselessly claim election fraud in 2020 as he heralded his initial Abraham Accords agreements.

And he mocked the free press, gesturing to pool reporters as he told his counterparts:

A high-level Israeli delegation is meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler in Doha, Qatar, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN Wednesday.

The delegation is engaging in ceasefire and hostage talks to end the war in Gaza, and Hamas is indirectly involved, the source said.

President Donald Trump said the US is “exploring normalizing relations” with Syria following a significant meeting Wednesday with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

“We are currently exploring normalizing relations with Syria’s new government,” Trump said during remarks to the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, one day after he announced plans to lift punishing sanctions on Syria.

Al-Sharaa and Trump were joined by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who joined in person, and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who joined by phone. Trump said Tuesday that both the crown prince and Erdogan were instrumental in his sanctions decision.

Lifting Syria’s sanctions, the president said, “gives them a chance for greatness – the sanctions were really crippling, very powerful.”

The leaders also discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the readout said.

The meeting between Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and US President Donald Trump was “extremely … positive on all levels,” a senior Saudi source with knowledge of the meeting told CNN.

Six months ago, Ahmad al-Sharaa was a jihadist with a $10 million bounty on his head. Now he’s just met with US President Donald Trump as Syria’s president.

Previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, Sharaa was an internationally sanctioned jihadist until he declared himself Syrian president this year.

His group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led the ouster of former President Bashar al Assad in December. Since assuming power, Sharaa traded his military outfit for a suit and began a diplomatic offensive to rehabilitate his image and get sanctions on his country removed.

HTS, which broke away from Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front, had been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and the United States.

The Syrian leader has been working to present Syria’s new regime as friendly, inclusive and non-belligerent.

In December, the US removed the long-standing $10 million bounty on Sharaa following a high-level US delegation visit to Damascus.

Trump announced in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that he plans to lift sanctions on Syria, which he said will “give them a chance at greatness.” He said he made the decision after discussing the matter with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Syria’s economy has been crippled for years by Western sanctions. Among the harshest is the US’ 2019 Caesar Act, which imposed wide-ranging sanctions that restricted individuals, companies or governments from economic activities assisting Assad’s war effort. The act rendered the entire economy untouchable.

US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh began at 10:07 a.m. and ended at 10:40 a.m. local time, according to the White House.

The meeting came one day after Trump said he planned to lift sanctions on Syria following the fall of the Assad regime — a major change in US foreign policy.

An informal meeting between US President Donald Trump and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is currently under way in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a White House official and a senior Saudi source briefed on the matter told CNN.

President Donald Trump announced he plans to lift sanctions on Syria during a speech in Saudi Arabia, citing the fall of the Assad regime as grounds for the release of pressure on the country. Syrians spared little time before celebrating.

On the first day of his Middle East trip, President Donald Trump sought to project himself as a consummate dealmaker and diplomat on the world stage.

He outlined a lofty vision for peace and prosperity in the region, announced investment deals, and said the US would lift sanctions on Syria — a major change in foreign policy.

Here are the other highlights: