Shunning the tradition of a U.S. president’s first foreign trip to either Canada or Mexico, President Trump’s first trip abroad of his second term was to the same place as his first term—the Middle East. Trump’s spent his four-day visit with the oil-rich Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, focused on making deals. During his stay in Riyadh, Trump announced at least $600 billion in Saudi investments in America, including $142 billion worth of new arms purchases from American defense contractors.
Trump made other deals throughout the trip, involving commitments to invest billions in American artificial intelligence data centers and agreements to sell high-tech U.S.-made AI chips to Gulf autocrats. The Trump family also expanded businesses ties in the Middle East as the president’s sons making deals for luxury hotels, golf resorts and a $2 billion investment in the Trump-inspired U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. This, in addition to Trump’ controversial acceptance of Qatar’s “gift” of a $400 million 747 jet plane, which would cost $1 billion to retrofit for use as a presidential Air Force One.
It was notable that Trump didn’t include a stop in Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with no substantial discussion or progress on renewing a ceasefire in Gaza, where Palestinian civilians continue to be slaughtered. The president appears to have sidelined Israel in negotiations with Iran on a new nuclear agreement, the lifting of long-standing sanctions on Syria, making a deal with the Houthi rebels to end the U.S. bombing of Yemen, and U.S. talks with Hamas that resulted in the release of the last living U.S. citizen held hostage in Gaza. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Raed Jarrar, advocacy director with the group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN,) a non-profit founded in September 2020 by Saudi U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi before his assassination ordered by the Saudi monarchy. Here, Jarrar assesses the mixed outcome of Trump’s recent trip to the Gulf states.
RAED JARRAR: I mean, I think overall the trip to the Middle East had mixed receptions and reviews. President Trump before leaving to the Middle East made a huge, earth-shattering decision that really broke decades of consensus in Washington, D.C. regarding Israel.
And his decision was to reach a unilateral truce with the Houthis in Yemen that did not include Israel. So in a way, this is the first time the U.S. government tells a regional player, “We’re not going to attack you if you don’t attack us back. But if you want to attack Israel, go for it.”
Now that decoupling of U.S. and Israel national interests is unprecedented, literally unprecedented. We’re talking about at least half a century where the United States worked as a protector for Israeli interests in the region. We saw how the previous administration under President Biden waged an entire war against Yemen that we didn’t gain anything from. It was not an authorized war. Houthis have not declared war on the United States. They didn’t really attack the U.S.
The Houthis one day woke up and said, “We are going to start a front to pressure Israel to end its genocide and we’re going to attack Israeli interests and ships.” So that declaration from President Trump was actually huge. It did not get as much coverage in the U.S.
And his decision to normalize with the new Syrian government was also very big. And it did break also with the Israeli government one, because Netanyahu has been bombing Syria almost every day for the past couple of months with plans to dismantle Syria into smaller countries. So the U.S. normalizing relationships and lifting all sanctions on Syria in one step is actually unprecedented, as one.
So these many, many observers, in D.C. and the region viewed these two steps as maybe a good opening for the Trump administration to be able to break decades of misguided U.S. foreign policy, where U.S. foreign policy put Israel first to a new policy that, you know, Trump describes as an America First policy.
I’m not necessarily a big fan of isolationism. But if that policy would actually break with the United States’ addiction to, it’s you know, abuse of allies in the region, that’s welcome. Unfortunately, we saw the exact opposite when President Trump went there. The rhetoric and his speeches did not match the actions. The actions were indulging in corruption and U.S. relationships with abusive governments like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and others in the region just to get more money and resources in this case, more money and resources for the U.S., but also more money and resources for President Trump himself, a few billion dollars here and there of investments that would benefit him. An airplane here and there that he will take with him after his presidency. It was definitely like a return to the normal kind of corrupt politics where U.S. presidents fly to the region, dance and wine and dine with dictators who are killing their own people.
Because in the U.S. vision, these dictators are providing them in the United States with something that they need.
SCOTT HARRIS: Right. I did want to address the issues you already spoke of. And that is, Trump did not stop in Israel during this Middle East trip. And as you said, he seems to be pursuing an independent path from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in terms of renewed negotiations with Iran on the nuclear agreement that he’s pursuing, as well as making a separate agreement with Hamas for the release of an Israeli-American hostage in Gaza.
RAED JARRAR: That’s right.
SCOTT HARRIS: Netanyahu had ordered a blockade of all humanitarian aid into Gaza for some 11 weeks. And just today, Netanyahu announced a very small number of humanitarian aid trucks will be allowed to enter the territory. Netanyahu also announced Israeli troops will soon take full control of the Gaza Strip.
RAED JARRAR: What’s going on in Gaza is horrific. It is genocide that we are watching live on our screens. We wake up every day to horrific pictures of dead children and destroyed communities. And, the United States has been complicit in this genocide since day one. The U.S. is definitely a partner in crime. President Biden and President Trump both have blood on their hands when it comes to the Israeli horrific violations that are committed being committed every day.
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