It probably should not have been surprising, however, that the first foreign business trip by President Donald Trump was very different, as he is very different.

My RedState colleagues provided detailed running coverage.

Remember 2013, when Joe Biden took son Hunter along to China on what was supposed to be a business trip to benefit the U.S. government? Biden actually took Hunter along to complete a multi-million-dollar business deal to benefit the Bidens.

This month's whirlwind visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates by America’s transactional chief executive was all about – wait for it! – transactions. Not just glowing palaver, but actual business done to benefit the U.S. economy.

There may be more details coming, but here's some of what we now know Trump accomplished, worth an estimated $2 trillion to the United States:

• Saudi Arabia will spend almost $142 billion on purchases from U.S. defense contractors, supporting/creating thousands of high-paying domestic jobs.
• A new $60 billion partnership between U.S. energy companies and Abu Dhabi’s state-run oil company.
• Boeing and GE Aerospace acquired record orders worth $96 billion from Qatar Airways for 210 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 777X aircraft that will support 154,000 U.S. jobs annually.
• General Atomics got a $2 billion contract for the MQ-9B family of unmanned drones that include intelligence and surveillance drones and the Reaper.
• And a billion-dollar purchase agreement from Qatar for Raytheon’s anti-drone defense equipment.

To underline Trump’s fresh approach to Mideast diplomacy, he gave a major speech to a Riyadh business group in which he praised the region’s new generation of leaders and stated his willingness for new, more equal relationships based on peace and mutual respect:

As I have shown repeatedly, I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be very profound….. 

My preference will always be for peace and partnership, whenever those outcomes can be achieved. Always.

And then, the reelected U.S. leader got to his telling main point:

In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins …

I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgment — my job [is] to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity, and peace.

The four days of congeniality, friendship, and progress toward mutually desired goals came as a striking contrast to the last visit by an American president. 

Joe Biden had called the Saudis a “pariah” state to appease his left-wing domestic supporters before his own administration’s energy strictures began to cripple oil supplies and sharply raise gas prices and fears.

So, Biden blithely flew to Riyadh to plead for increased oil production to lower energy prices because they threatened to damage his Democrat Party in the 2022 midterm elections.

Biden was firmly rejected. All he got from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was a pedestrian fist bump at the front door.

Trump’s reception was extravagant even by the extravagant standards of Arab hospitality. 

They included large fighter escorts for Air Force One. The Crown Prince himself greeted Trump at the airport, a rare sign of respect, and then he saw the U.S. leader off later in person with frequent touching of his heart to signal sincerity.

Such pageantry and flattery from the three wily, royal hosts would impress any leader, especially Trump. He returned abundant compliments to all three nations and hosts.

Of course, the president’s foreign trip went well because all participants wanted it to go well. There's a real skill to setting up a win-win. And because each participant had much to gain by ensuring it went well, the key element in any real deal-making, I read some years ago.

The productive 100 hours of diplomacy abroad matched the impressively productive first 100 days of Trump administration achievements. Not by accident, they occurred far beyond the obstructive reach of Democrat judges suffering from injunctivitis. A perfect next chapter in the opening four-month narrative of Trump’s busy presidency. 

Although, because of its abundant success, you may have noticed that domestic U.S. media coverage has tried to focus instead on the controversial Qatar airplane offer.

Seeking to enhance his credentials as a peacemaker and launch a positive new relationship after a 20-year break, Trump also met with Syria’s new leader, still technically a terrorist by U.S. standards, and lifted U.S. sanctions to aid rebuilding there after its long civil war.

Trump also repeated his vow and appeal to Iran, a vow that the ruling mullahs would never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon and an appeal for talks on ending its nuclear ambitions and terrorist sponsorships. The U.S. leader offered promises of mutual respect and help in solving their festering economic problems.

Not many observers expect Tehran to accept such change and productive talks. But then, Trump critics said the same thing during his first term when he reached out to North Korea’s unbalanced Kim Jong-un.

At least three U.S. presidents over two decades had sought talks with the hermit kingdom’s Kim leadership. But Trump’s unorthodox and much-criticized threats of “fire and fury,” his movement of two nuclear-carrier task forces to the area, and offers of a brighter future did eventually open a dialogue.

Oh, look! U.S. carrier forces are now within striking distance of Iran, as are a half-dozen long-distance B-2 bombers on Diego Garcia, an atoll in the Indian Ocean. 

The stealth B-2s are the only craft capable of delivering the immense, laser-guided, 15-ton bunker-buster bombs that could penetrate to Iran’s underground nuclear facilities. 

If I didn’t know better, I would see a broader Trump strategic plan at play in his activities these days. He’s speaking softly while once again carrying Teddy Roosevelt’s big stick.

Through targeted use of U.S. air power, Trump has effectively reduced the Houthi threat to international skipping in the Red Sea.  

He is seeking productive talks with Iran’s mullahs on their hopes of acquiring nuclear weapons and curbing their sponsorship of international terrorism.

He is opening relations with the new Syrian regime, no longer a disruptive proxy for Iran, in hopes of encouraging stability there. 

Trump is pushing talks between Ukraine and its Russian invaders to end the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. It’s frustrating for him because Vladimir Putin is not pushable. 

He is ruthless. Putin's domestic opponents seem to have a proclivity for falling from tall buildings. He has the clandestine support of China’s Xi Jinping, who doesn’t mind tying the U.S. down there while expanding its influence in Africa and Southeast Asia.

There is, in reality, no reason for Putin to back off in Ukraine and on his dream of reassembling a modest 21st-century version of a Russian empire. 

He has successfully annexed two provinces of Georgia, Crimea, and the eastern 20 percent of Ukraine. The only Western responses were words and paper sanctions, which he’s shrugged off. In fact, the attempted Western boycott of Russian oil has only increased the world price and Moscow’s profits.

Truth is, Putin has played all recent presidents by stalling and giving up nothing. Remember Barack Obama unilaterally cancelling a missile defense system in Eastern Europe to buy favor from Putin in reining in Iran?

Putin took it, did no such thing, and sold Tehran a new anti-aircraft defense system. The Russian has lost nearly a million men in his invasion but cares not. He’s kidnapped a generation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories and removed them for Russification.

If anyone can forge a workable deal with Putin, it's Trump. By stalling and giving up nothing, Putin has seen Trump’s opening peace offer as giving him Crimea, what he’s conquered already, and perhaps a promise that Kiev would never join NATO. The Russian leader is on a roll, having lost nothing that matters to him while continuing to drain Ukraine's strength.

To spur a settlement, Trump has also threatened to end Ukraine’s military support and challenged Europe to prepare to defend itself from future threats, such as, say, some dictator tearing up international agreements and annexing other countries, as a German did in World War II. And as Putin did with the Budapest Memorandum by invading Ukraine.

Trump’s unstated urgency is aimed at reducing or ending U.S. involvement in European entanglements and NATO, and setting up Mideast allies to better defend themselves by spending billions on American armaments.

That’s because the United States military is no longer capable of addressing two global conflicts at once. And the real military confrontation is setting up in Asia as China maneuvers to capture Taiwan.

Beijing would have clear home-field advantage in that maritime conflict. Taiwan is less than 100 miles off the Chinese mainland. Some of Taiwan’s islands are as close to China as Staten Island is to Manhattan.

On the other hand, Taiwan, the world’s most productive source of computer chips, is 5,000 miles from  U.S. bases in Hawaii and 1,800 from Guam.

The Chinese navy is now 50 percent larger than the U.S. fleet and growing virtually weekly. Construction of a few U.S. capital ships is years behind. Trump has vowed to fix the situation. 

He has 3.66 years left.