President Trump leaves for the Middle East today and is aiming to return home with $1 trillion worth of deals and investment pledges, U.S. and Arab officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid, Alison Snyder and Marc Caputo.

• Why it matters: Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE this week is almost all about money. "His regional agenda is business, business and business," one Arab official said.

The geopolitical agenda is secondary. While Trump had made clear he wants a Saudi-Israel normalization deal, the president and his aides know it's currently not in the cards, mainly due to the ongoing war in Gaza.

🖼️ The big picture: Trump made Saudi Arabia the first foreign trip of his first term, and would have again if not for Pope Francis' funeral.

• One reason: Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) pledged $600 billion in investments in the U.S. over the next four years right after Trump took office.

💸 Breaking it down: The Qataris are also expected to announce $200 billion-300 billion in deals and investments, including a huge commercial aircraft deal with Boeing and a $2 billion deal to purchase MQ-9 Reaper drones, a source with knowledge of the issue said.

• Qatar is also considering giving Trump a gift: A 747 jumbo jet to serve temporarily as Air Force One.
• The UAE already declared in March that it would invest $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next decade.

Between the lines: Trump clearly sees the Gulf as a place where there's big money to be made, for the U.S. and for businesses like his.

• The Trump Organization announced a new luxury real estate deal in Qatar just two weeks before the trip, and has projects in Jeddah, Dubai and Oman.

🤖 Zoom in: A particular focus of the trip will be investments in AI and tech.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will travel to the Gulf during Trump's trip.
• A host of tech leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, are slated to speak tomorrow at a Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh.

Share this story.

The U.S. and China will slash their tariffs on each other for 90 days, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced in Switzerland at 3 a.m. ET.

• Why it matters: It's the relief global businesses and investors hoped for, after the trade war brought commerce to a near-halt and sent economies hurtling toward recession, Axios managing editor for business Ben Berkowitz writes.

🚢 How it works: The U.S. will lower tariffs to 30% during the pause, while China will cut its tariffs to 10%, Bessent said in Geneva at a news conference with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, following a weekend of talks.

• Both sides agreed to a 115% cut, though the U.S. rate was higher to begin with.

🔮 What's next: Experts warn a likely coming surge in orders could stretch supply chains almost as badly as the tariffs choking them off did.

• Stocks soared, with S&P 500 futures up more than 3% on the news.

Get the latest.

The U.S. and Qatar were bargaining over the price for a "palace in the sky" Boeing 747-8 to be used as the new Air Force One — and Qatar "came back and said: 'We'll just gift it. It's OK,'" a top administration source tells Axios' Marc Caputo.

• "And it's gifted to the people of the United States, gifted to the Department of Defense," the source added. "And it's supposed to be ready by the end of the year."

Why it matters: Qatar's royal family plans to donate the luxury jumbo jet to the Defense Department, then it'll be transferred to President Trump's presidential library when he leaves office — one of the biggest foreign gifts ever given to the U.S., ABC News scooped and the N.Y. Times confirmed.

Democrats say such a transfer would have to be approved by Congress.

• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws."

👀 Behind the scenes: The White House was looking for a quick successor to the specially configured Boeing 747-200Bs that are the iconic presidential aircraft, which have been in service 30+ years.

• The first of the current planes was delivered in 1990. One or the other is frequently out for maintenance, and a replacement from Boeing isn't expected until at least 2027.

"So that's what we got," the source said. "And nobody's happy with that. It isn't Donald Trump being a diva. Nobody's happy with that."

• Share this story ... Go deeper: Dem seeks probe into Trump's plane plan.

Before leaving for the Middle East later this morning, President Trump plans to sign an executive order that he says could cut prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices "almost immediately, by 30% to 80%," Axios' Rebecca Falconer and Adriel Bettelheim write.

• Why it matters: Drug prices are considerably higher for U.S. patients than in other countries.

🔬 Zoom in: Trump said on Truth Social that he'll "be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION'S POLICY [MFN] whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World."

• Trump proposed the "most-favored nation" plan for Medicare in his first term, but it was halted by a federal court after drugmakers sued.
• The announcement will be at 9:30 a.m. ET in the Roosevelt Room.

👀 Four hours in advance, Trump teased the coming Truth Social post as "one of the most important and impactful I have ever issued. ENJOY."

• After Trump's drug-pricing announcement, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted: "It cannot be overstated how big of a deal this Executive Order will be for American families and especially our seniors!"

The other side: Stephen Ubl, CEO of the trade group PhRMA, told Axios in an emailed statement that a "Foreign First Pricing scheme is a bad deal for American patients."

• "Importing foreign prices will cut billions of dollars from Medicare with no guarantee that it helps patients or improves their access to medicines," Ubl adds. "It jeopardizes the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America, making us more reliant on China for innovative medicines."

Share this story.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on "Meet the Press" that "what you see in Newark is going to happen ... in other places across the country."

• "It has to be fixed," Duffy added. "We're having ... telecom issues, but we're also having some glitches in our software. As the information comes in, it's overloading some of our lines, and the system goes down."

Go deeper: "Flights Could Be Disrupted Across U.S., Transportation Secretary Warns" (N.Y. Times gift link).

RFK Jr.'s short time leading America's health agencies has already destabilized the uneasy alliance that vaulted him into President Trump's Cabinet, Axios' Zachary Basu and Caitlin Owens write.

• Why it matters: The "Make America Healthy Again" movement — a loose umbrella of vaccine skeptics, wellness influencers, and anti-pharma crusaders — was envisioned as a revolution against the medical establishment.

🎨 The big picture: The anti-establishment takeover of HHS has become one of the most chaotic experiments of Trump's second term.

• Trump has already been forced to pull two major health nominations — former Rep. Dave Weldon for CDC director, and Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat for surgeon general.
• The FDA's top vaccine regulator, Peter Marks, abruptly resigned in March in protest of Kennedy's "misinformation and lies" about vaccines.
• As a measles outbreak spread in Texas, the White House became so frustrated by the lack of clear and fast communications by HHS that it set up a parallel press shop.

Share this story.

Florida-based lobbyist Brian Ballard is no longer in the White House dog house, after scoring a Friday sit-down with President Trump and his chief of staff, Axios' Marc Caputo writes.

• Why it matters: Ballard, a longtime Trump fundraiser and adviser who once lobbied for the Trump Organization, earned the ire of the White House after his firm circumvented the regular channels for lobbying on behalf of a cryptocurrency client.

A Ballard Partners associate persuaded Trump at a fundraiser to issue a March 2 Truth Social post that benefited the company Ripple Labs, a Ballard client.

• Trump's post blindsided the White House's crypto czar, David Sacks, who promptly complained.

🔍 The intrigue: Several Trump allies struck back Thursday via a brutal Politico story that detailed the controversy and said Ballard was frozen out.

• That would be close to a death sentence for a firm whose substantial Washington presence is tied in great part to his access to the president and senior administration officials — including chief of staff Susie Wiles, who worked for Ballard years ago.
• So Ballard cut short a European vacation and scored a meeting with Trump and Wiles.

Inside the room: "They had a good conversation," said an administration source familiar with the "very cordial" meeting. "The president spoke his piece. Brian spoke his, and apologized."

• "There's a reset. It's back."

Share this story.

Memorial Day travel is projected to beat a 20-year-old record high this year, Axios' April Rubin and Alex Fitzpatrick write from AAA data out this morning.

• Why it matters: Americans keep breaking travel records in the post-pandemic period, either to keep making up for lost time during COVID or, now, to get ahead of potential rising prices over the next few months.

By the numbers: 45.1 million people are projected to travel at least 50 miles from home.

• That's an increase of 1.4 million travelers from last year and surpasses the record from 2005.

Keep reading.