And I’ll leave you with my colleague Julian Borger’s report on the visit:
Summary
Donald Trump welcomed crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington on Tuesday, in the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia’s first White House visit since the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. The shocking murder caused global outrage and appeared to set the Gulf kingdom on a path to international pariah status. In 2021 US intelligence concluded that bin Salman had approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi, a fierce critic of the Saudi regime. The crown prince has denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler. Seven years on, that shocking murder seemed a distant memory, as MBS arrived to a lavish display including fanfare, a US Marine band and a military flyover as he stepped onto the South Lawn of the White House to meet Trump.
Talking to reporters in the Oval Office, the US president brushed off questions from a reporter about MBS’s role in Khashoggi’s killing, saying “things happen”. “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Trump said of the murdered columnist, before going on to contradict US intelligence on the Saudi crown prince’s role in the affair. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him, or didn’t like him, things happen. But he [bin Salman] knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.” While Trump castigated the reporter for the question, a calm MBS said:“It’s painful and it’s a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
The crown prince announced Saudi Arabia was raising its planned investments in the US to almost $1tn, up from $600bn that the Saudis said they planned to invest when Trump visited the kingdom in May. MBS said the kingdom has “huge demand” for computing power and desires US AI chips. Trump also said he “can see” a deal happening to transfer American nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, but didn’t specify a timeline. Against a backdrop of subdued oil prices and MBS’s high spending on megaprojects at home, that figure is likely very unrealistic, but Trump seemed thrilled nonetheless.
Trump also pushed back on the notion that there was a conflict of interest, given his family’s strong personal interest in the kingdom. “I have nothing to do with the family business,” said Trump, adding that his family has relatively little interest in the kingdom. In September, London real estate developer Dar Global announced that it plans to launch Trump Plaza in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. It’s Dar Global’s second collaboration with the Trump Organization, the collection of companies controlled by Trump’s children, in Saudi Arabia. Last year, the two companies announced the launch of Trump Tower Jeddah.
Trump confirmed that he had agreed to sell the Saudis F-35 fighter jets despite some concerns within the administration that the sale could lead to China gaining access to the US technology behind the advanced weapon system. The agreement will be similar to the one the US has with Israel, which is significant as until now Israel has been the only country in the Middle East to have the jets. The move has the potential to alter the military balance in the region. As Politico noted earlier: “A major arms deal would signal a sea change in the US approach to Saudi Arabia: No longer would deeper ties between the two countries be so dependent on Saudi Arabia normalising relations with Israel.”
On that subject, MBS made clear that normalisation with Israel (i.e. Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, which Trump really wants) could not happen without first securing a clear path towards a two-state solution. The crown prince said he wants Israelis and Palestinians “to coexist peacefully” in the region. Trump has been trying to nudge the Saudis to join the accords for some time and said today he felt he’d had a “positive response”. But it’s worth remembering that Israel, meanwhile, remains steadfastly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Trump will return to the South Lawn later, with first lady Melania, to welcome the crown prince when he returns for the evening East Room dinner. In addition to today’s White House pomp, the two nations are also planning an investment summit at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday that will include the heads of Salesforce, Qualcomm, Pfizer, the Cleveland Clinic, Chevron and Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil and natural gas company, where even more deals with the Saudis could be announced.
Updated
