Steak with ketchup and plenty of downtime: How staffers are working overtime to keep Trump happy on his first trip abroad as president

Trump's team has spent weeks planning his first foreign trip as president
Though he's an international businessman, Trump reportedly has an aversion to travel and staffers are trying to make sure he's happy on this trip
In Saudi Arabia, caterers are planning to offer the president his favorite meal of steak and ketchup, though the steak will be halal
And his staff his been making sure to schedule in downtime in the otherwise jam-packed itinerary

Published: 08:54 GMT, 19 May 2017 | Updated: 18:59 GMT, 19 May 2017

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When President Donald Trump sits down for dinner in Saudi Arabia, caterers have ensured that his favorite meal - steak with a side of ketchup - will be offered alongside the traditional local cuisine.

At NATO and the Group of 7 summits, foreign delegations have gotten word that the new U.S. president prefers short presentations and lots of visual aids.

And at all of Trump's five stops on his first overseas trip, his team has spent weeks trying to build daily downtime into his otherwise jam-packed schedule.

It's all part of a worldwide effort to accommodate America's homebody president on a voyage with increasingly raised stakes given the ballooning controversy involving his campaign's possible ties to Russia.

For a former international businessman, Trump simply doesn't have an affinity for much international.

During a stop in Saudi Arabia this weekend, President Trump will be served his favorite meal of steak and ketchup, insiders have revealed. Trump pictured above eating a Trump-branded steak in 2007

The president leaves tonight on an overnight flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where he will started his week-long trip

Even before Trump's trip morphed from a quick jaunt to Europe into a nine-day behemoth, White House aides were on edge about how the president would take to grueling pressures of foreign travel: the time zone changes, the unfamiliar hotels, the local delicacies.

Two officials said they feared that a difficult trip might even lead the president to hand off future traveling duties to Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump's final itinerary hardly eases him into the delicate world of international diplomacy on foreign soil.

After departing Friday on an overnight flight on Air Force One, Trump will hopscotch from Saudi Arabia to Israel to the Vatican. He'll close his trip with a pair of summits in Brussels and Sicily, often-staid affairs that require leaders to be locked in lengthy plenary sessions.

'The chance of something going wrong - you insult the hosts, you get sick, your boss gets sick, you miscommunicate with your hosts, you make a scheduling error, you need to change the schedule just hours before a meeting, the motorcade gets stuck in traffic, or the plane is stranded due to bad weather - is extremely high,' said Julianne Smith, who served as a foreign policy adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and is now a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security.

'Personally, I think they should cut it back now before they regret it,' she said of Trump's long jaunt.

The trip marks the first time since taking office that Trump has spent a night away from the White House at a property that doesn't bear his name.

SCHEDULE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP'S FIRST FOREIGN TRIP

Friday, May 19

President Trump takes an overnight flight from Washington, DC to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Saturday, May 20

President Trump to have coffee with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, attend a royal banquet and hold bilateral meetings with the king, the crown prince and the deputy crown prince
Participates in signing ceremony of 'several agreements that will further solidify U.S.-Saudi security and economic cooperation'
President and first lady attend official dinner with Saudi royal family

Sunday, May 21

Bi-lateral meetings with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders, broader meetings with all Gulf states leaders
Afternoon lunch with the leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries, where he will give a speech
President Trump will participate in the inauguration of a new center to fight radicalism and promote moderation
The president will participate in a Twitter forum with young people

Monday, May 22

Trump flies to Jerusalem to meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin
He will lay a wreath at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, where he will also deliver a speech
Private meeting later in the day with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Trump and first lady have private dinner with Netanyahu and his wife

Tuesday, May 23

Trump to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem
He will visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christian's believe Jesus' tomb lies, and say a prayer at the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism

Wednesday, May 24

Trump flies to Rome to meet with Pope Francis and the Cardinal Secretary of State at the Vatican, where he will also get a tour of St Peter's Basilica
Later, he meets with Italian President Sergio Matterella before leaving for Brussels, Belgium

Thursday, May 25

President Trump will meet with King Philippe of Belgium and Prime Minister Charles Michel, as well as other heads of states and government in Belgium
At European Union headquarters, Trump will meet with the EU and European Council presidents
Trump will have a working lunch with newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron
In the afternoon, he will give a speech at unveiling of a new NATO memorial containing pieces of the Berlin Wall and World Trade Center
President Trump and Secretary of Defense James Mattis will meet with NATO leaders and have dinner before traveling to Sicily, Italy for the G7 Summit

Friday, May 26

Trump will attend the G7 summit in Sicily and meet with leaders including Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni
In the evening, he will attend a concert of the La Scala Philharmonic followed by a dinner for leaders hosted by the Italian president

Saturday, May 27

Trump will give a speech to American and Allied servicemen and their families before boarding Air Force One back to DC

And it's not just the bragging rights Trump gets when he goes to his own properties: Staffers know his meal preferences and the exact temperature he likes a room set at. He's often surrounded by long-time friends and acquaintances who have memberships to the commander in chief-owned retreats.

The one trip Trump took abroad as a candidate was to mark the opening of a new golf resort in Scotland. He led journalists on a roving tour of the course and said his property would benefit if Britain's currency tanked following its decision to leave the European Union.

The stakes will be far higher as President Trump makes his debut on the international stage. He's the first president since Jimmy Carter to not travel abroad during his first 100 days in office. And he'll depart under a cloud of controversy, much of it of his own making, including the White House's botched handling of FBI Director James Comey's firing.

Nearly all of Trump's senior White House officials are traveling with him. First lady Melania Trump will also be on the trip, headlining her own events on each stop.

The Slovenian-born Mrs. Trump is the more seasoned international traveler in the relationship. She lived and worked as a model in Paris and Milan before moving to New York, and speaks multiple languages.

Before the couple married, they flew to Slovenia so the New York real estate mogul could meet his bride-to-be's family. The day trip marked the only time Trump has set foot in his wife's home country.

'At least I can say that I went,' Trump told The New York Times last year.

Foreign travel has never been high on Trump's list of priorities. During his first marriage, he usually stayed behind when wife Ivana took his children for visits to her home country, the former Czechoslovakia. He's made the occasional stops to meet business partners abroad, but most of his travel has been to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and other U.S. properties.

Trump's hosts on his upcoming trip are well-aware of his aversion to travel and are trying to make accommodations to keep him happy.

In Saudi Arabia, people with knowledge of the planning for Trump's trip say the caterers are planning to offer the president steak and ketchup alongside the lamb and hefty portions of rice on the menu. All the meat will have been butchered in a Shariah-compliant halal manner as per Islamic custom.

The people with knowledge of the Saudis' planning insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the sensitive details.