ANALYSIS — The scene at the White House on Tuesday was vintage Donald Trump. He welcomed one of the world’s most controversial figures, verbally lambasted a reporter and announced a major arms deal that could shake up the Middle East. And all before lunch.
There was the 47th U.S. president warmly shaking hands with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Nevermind that the president’s family business has been openly touting a possible multibillion-dollar real estate deal with the Saudi government, raising ethical questions about the opulent White House visit. (Trump on Tuesday said he had “nothing to do with the family business.”)
How better to respond just when Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and other self-described members of the vocal “America First” faction are still grumbling about how much time the second-term president is devoting to foreign policy?
It was a convenient coincidence of scheduling for Trump, allowing him to send a visual message to Greene and other conservative populists from the world stage. Last week, during an exchange with reporters, he scolded Greene, saying presidents had to juggle foreign and domestic policy matters simultaneously; he followed up days later by rescinding his endorsement of the longtime MAGA ally.
Trump on Tuesday appeared to bask in the crown prince’s visit, his first trek to Washington since the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Virginia resident — which the U.S. intelligence community concluded Prince Mohammed was responsible.
The president, though, called the crown prince “fantastic” and a “friend for a long time” and showed the Saudi leader his “Presidential Walk of Fame” along the White House colonnade.
Trump smiled wide when Prince Mohammed, who is also known by his initials MBS, said he would “definitely” increase a planned $600 billion investment in the United States to $1 trillion. The president also said reconstruction in Gaza was “very important” to his Saudi counterpart and claimed the Palestinians were “doing very well, actually.” Israeli military actions in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks have left around 71,000 Palestinians in the territory dead.
Here are four takeaways from Trump’s high-stakes White House summit with MBS.
Abraham afterwork
Trump will not be getting something during the visit that he strongly wants: Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, a Trump 1.0 effort to integrate Israel’s economy into the Middle East by establishing diplomatic links between the Jewish state and several Arab nations.
Prince Mohammed indicated Tuesday he was interested in joining the pact but first wanted to “secure” a “path” to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said he and Trump had already had a “healthy discussion” on the topic earlier in the day.
Rachel Bronson, an analyst with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, recently noted that the crown prince was returning to Washington “at a warm point in U.S.-Saudi relations and amid a geopolitically reshaped Middle East that has tilted in Saudi Arabia’s favor.”
“While he will seek to build on the economic and defense agreements established during Trump’s May visit, both Washington and Riyadh will be exploring what might be possible geopolitically, and leaders around the world will be watching very closely,” she added
Still, Bronson believes Trump could become frustrated with the Saudi leader. The crown prince wants more from Trump on his long-term vision for war-obliterated Gaza.
“The Saudis have been working assiduously to lower expectations that they will join the Abraham Accords — a stated goal of the Trump administration that would require normalizing relations with Israel — until the White House articulates a clearer vision for the future of Gaza and the West Bank,” she wrote.
Khashoggi kerfuffle
As he and the crown prince held court with the press in the Oval Office, Trump snapped at an ABC News reporter who asked MBS about Khashoggi’s murder, calling her network “fake news.” Reporter Mary Bruce had asked a two-part question, while noting that “9/11 families are furious” over the prince’s White House visit.
“As far as this gentleman is concerned, he’s done a phenomenal job,” Trump said of Prince Mohammed, before turning his attention to Khashoggi.
“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman,” the president said. “Things happen. But he [MBS] knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guests by asking a question.”
The prince ignored the question and talked about al-Qaida using Saudi nationals for the Sept. 11 attacks, contending that his government has taken steps to avoid a repeat.
Trump later slammed Bruce’s query as a “horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question.”
He also threatened to target ABC’s broadcast license. (The network reached a $15 million settlement with the president earlier this year over a false statement about Trump made on air by an ABC News anchor.)
F-35s for all
Trump confirmed to reporters that he intends to approve the sale of Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighters to the kingdom.
The move will position more of the stealthy, multipurpose jets in the Middle East, where American forces in the past year have bombed Iranian nuclear sites and helped Israel defend against Iranian missile and drone attacks. (Saudi Arabia assisted in the latter enterprise, notably.)
The American president, who is close with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Jewish state would not object to a longtime Arab rival receiving the high-tech war planes.
“Israel’s aware, and they’re gonna be very happy,” Trump said, while also referring to Saudi Arabia as a “really a great ally.”
But the fighter sale, like the Saudis joining the Abraham Accords, has not yet been finalized, as a top Trump administration official noted last week.
“A lot of progress has been made since the president’s visit there, so we’re working through that,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former GOP senator, told reporters, referring to Trump’s May trip to Riyadh. “I feel good about where it’s at. There’s still a few things that need to be tightened up and finalized.”
Opulent opening
The 40-year-old crown prince serves as the de facto leader of the oil-rich Middle Eastern power, with his father, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, in declining health.
Prince Mohammed has taken on many of his government’s head-of-state tasks. But with his father still alive, Tuesday’s working sessions and black-tie dinner could not be an official state visit.
Still, the prince received the unofficial head-of-state treatment from Trump and his administration. In fact, he got perhaps the most opulent welcome any foreign leader has received so far in Trump’s second term.
Saudi and American flags were affixed to light posts near the White House.
Trump 2.0 has seen a near-weekly stream of White House visits from world leaders — sometimes multiple presidents or prime ministers per week. Many have been greeted by Trump or White House protocol chief Monica Crowley under the West Wing portico.
Not MBS, who got an elaborate South Lawn ceremony. Where other world leaders merely were greeted with a U.S. military honor guard lined up along the north driveway, the crown prince got a cannon salute too — and a flyover of American F-35 and F-15 fighter jets, a U.S. military band on the Truman Balcony and a procession of flag-bearers on massive horses across the South Lawn driveway. He arrived in a sleek black Mercedes sedan, not a boxy Chevrolet SUV like other leaders.
A planned East Room dinner Tuesday was expected to rival a state dinner, with even the day’s press pool required to chronicle the event in black-tie attire.
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