As Trump signed over a hundred executive orders on his first day back at the White House, he was asked about his 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia, which broke with American tradition.
Trump told a reporter at the Oval Office he went to the kingdom because the Saudi government agreed to purchase hundreds of billions of dollars of American goods.
“I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450bn dollars worth of our product. I said I’ll do it, but you have to buy American product, and they agreed to do that,” adding that he “would go there” again if the kingdom agreed to buy more.
“Well, I don’t know. If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another 450 or 500, we’d raise it for all the inflation. I think I probably would go there.”
The 2017 trip led to the famous photo of Trump clutching an ominous glowing orb alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
It’s unclear whether Trump was serious in his remarks. However, the comment highlights how Trump approaches policy by prioritising American trade and the US economy above all other issues.
US-Saudi relations soured under the previous administration of President Joe Biden due to Biden’s criticism of the killing of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Despite an attempt by the Biden administration to fix their relationship in the latter half of its tenure, the ties never seemed to fully warm.
Under Trump, Saudi Arabia and the US had a much friendlier relationship, and Trump’s son-in-law and former senior advisor, Jared Kushner, had a personal friendship with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
That friendship came into play at the time of Khashoggi’s killing, which was done at the hands of Saudi agents. With Khashoggi being a US resident, his killing caused shockwaves in Washington, with calls for Trump to condemn his murder.
The previous Trump administration never altered its relationship with Riyadh despite the outrage over Khashoggi’s killing, and also blocked a bipartisan congressional measure aimed at ending US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
Before entering office this time around, the Trump Organisation also signed a brand deal for a luxury tower real estate project in Saudi Arabia, another sign of the deepening ties between the Trump Organisation and Dar Al Arkan, the parent company of Dar Global, which is the real estate developer working on the tower project.
After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, he was also seen on multiple occasions with Yasir al-Rumayyan, head of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, who is also currently chairing the new LIV Golf promotion.
