RIYADH, Saudi Arabia >> President Donald Trump was more than 7,400 miles from Palm Beach, Fla., but he looked right at home.

With its giant crystal chandeliers, polished marble, plush carpets and prominently displayed portraits of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Royal Court had the feel of a Mar-a-Lago East.

The White House also said Tuesday said that Trump had secured $600 billion in deals with the Saudi government and firms. But the details the White House provided were vague and totaled less than half that number.

And a closer look at the projects the administration provided shows several were already in the works before Trump took office.

Royal treatment

On Tuesday, the first day of the president’s four-day Middle East swing, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, gave Trump the royal treatment.

Trump was escorted through Saudi airspace by three F-15 fighter jets flanking each side of Air Force One. The presidential limousine was accompanied to the Royal Court in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, by riders on Arabian horses. Musical horns blasted. An honor guard stood at attention as Crown Prince Mohammed guided Trump into the court along a long, lavender carpet.

The president couldn’t stop smiling, and understandably so. The Saudi royals are his friends and allies. They are his family’s business partners. More than most, they understand his tastes and desires.

“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said as he sat beside the crown prince inside the king’s executive office.

Business deals

After lunch at the Royal Court, Trump spoke at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, in a ballroom where the Saudi government hosts its grandest events.

Defense contractors, international financiers and construction executives milled around, trying on virtual reality goggles and gawking at architectural models of the kingdom’s planned megaprojects.

The biggest deal announced was what the administration called “the largest defense sales agreement in history.” The nearly $142 billion agreement will provide the kingdom with state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from more than a dozen U.S. defense industry companies.

The White House also included a commitment from Saudi company DataVolt to move forward with plans to invest $20 billion in artificial intelligence data centers and energy infrastructure in the United States.

It also touted more than $2 billion in work U.S. firms were performing on Saudi infrastructure projects.

The deals announced by the White House totaled around $283 billion — less than half the $600 billion promised by the Saudi crown prince — but the administration said those were “just a few of the many transformative deals secured in Saudi Arabia.” White House officials said more such deals would be forthcoming. (Organizers of the investment forum said that 145 deals were signed, totaling more than $300 billion.)

The White House said the package also included extensive training and support to build the capacity of the Saudi armed forces.

Diplomatic matters

He also went after Iran, calling it “the biggest and most destructive” force threatening the stability and prosperity of the Middle East, and vowing it would never have a nuclear weapon. At the same time, he said he was offering Iran “a new path and a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future.”

“I have never believed in having permanent enemies,” Trump said.

But there was silence in the crowd after he said it was his “fervent wish” that Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords, the 2020 deal in which two of its neighbors established diplomatic relations with Israel. The normalization of relations with the Israeli government is deeply unpopular among Saudis, polling shows, and Saudi officials say that recognizing Israel would hinge on the creation of a Palestinian state.

Trump also spoke of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.

“The people of Gaza deserve a much better future,” he said. “But that will or cannot occur as long as their leaders choose to kidnap, torture and target innocent men, women and children for political ends.”

The White House announcement about the deals came hours after Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a series of agreements between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Leaders from Amazon, defense giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and Halliburton were in attendance. So were Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, the world’s largest semiconductor company; Alex Karp, the CEO of software company Palantir Technologies; and Patrick Soon-Shiong, the businessperson who owns The Los Angeles Times.