No escape from woes as Trump visits Saudi

US President Donald Trump arrived in Riyadh yesterday, the first stop on his inaugural foreign trip as he seeks to escape the controversy engulfing his administration.

Trump and his wife, Melania, who dressed conservatively in black, walked side by side on the airport tarmac where they both shook hands with Saudi King Salman.

Trump was to hold talks with the king and the kingdom's two powerful crown princes before giving a speech on Islam to leaders of the Muslim world today.

He was also greeted with more damaging headlines back home, where the avalanche of revelations in the run-up to his departure has eroded his standing — and where the parallels with Richard Nixon's ill-fated presidency are now being openly drawn.

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The New York Times reported shortly after Air Force One departed that Trump had bragged about firing FBI director James Comey to two Russian diplomats in an Oval Office meeting, calling Comey a "nut job" and saying that his removal had relieved pressure from the Russia investigation.

The Washington Post reported at about the same time that law enforcement officials had identified a senior White House adviser close to the president as a person of interest in the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The report did not identify the adviser.

Also on Friday, the Senate intelligence committee said Comey had agreed to testify in open session, ending more than a week of speculation about whether he would appear publicly to make his case since he was fired by Trump on May 9.

The Saudi trip has been billed by the White House as a chance to visit places sacred to three of the world's major religions while giving Trump time to meet Arab, Israeli and European leaders.

After Saudi Arabia, Trump plans stops in Israel and at the Vatican — where he will meet Pope Francis — before joining a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Brussels to confer with top allies, including newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron.

He will conclude with the annual Group of Seven meeting in Sicily.

The trip will be a fast-paced, high-stakes whirlwind of diplomacy, all conducted under the shadow of the deepening political crisis back home.

Trump again denied there was any collusion between him or his campaign and the Russian government at a news conference on Thursday.

Trump also denied asking Comey to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser. "No. No. Next question," Trump said tersely at the news conference.

Earlier this week, the Department of Justice announced it was appointing former FBI director Robert Mueller as a special counsel charged with leading the federal investigation into Russian influence.

That move followed the president's surprise firing of Comey, and his acknowledgment that frustration about the Russia investigation factored into his decision.

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The controversy grew amid revelations that Trump disclosed classified material in an Oval Office meeting with Russian diplomats, and the existence of a memo in which Comey said Trump had asked him to drop an inquiry into Flynn.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the controversy as a "witch-hunt". He now hopes that his eight-day, six-country journey can turn the page politically, offering him a chance to demonstrate his singular brand of deal-making diplomacy.

Trump selected Saudi Arabia for the first leg of his journey after receiving assurances that the kingdom would make significant investments in the US, including purchases of hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of military equipment in the next decade and $40-billion (about R529-billion) from its sovereign wealth fund, a White House official said.

That includes a $6-billion deal for Saudi Arabia to buy four "littoral combat ships" made by Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Saudi officials have told the White House that King Salman will publicly say it is the responsibility of leaders throughout the Middle East to defeat radical ideology in the region, according to another administration official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

This official said the White House regarded that speech as a significant development that could draw other Arab nations closer to the US.

Senior administration officials said they expected major diplomatic efforts such as Trump's effort to align the world's major religions against extremism to help push domestic controversies off the front pages.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that Trump's domestic troubles would not hamper his diplomacy. "The people in the rest of the world do not have the time to pay attention to what's happening domestically here."