By John J. Metzler, May 22, 2025With the staging and showmanship of a Cecil B. De Mille saga, President Donald Trump’s State visit to three Arabian Kingdoms was uniquely paired with pomp and joint business incentives which focused in transforming the narrative from conflict to commerce and cooperation.
The visits were set to the spectacular backdrop of casts of thousands, Arabian stallions and camel cohorts marking the fanfare of the President’s four-day trip to the region.
The glitzy Gulf Kingdoms offered “the Donald” both a positive and comfortable backdrop to his New York style business pitch for prosperity.
American diplomacy was focused on friendships beyond traditional petroleum links.
The Middle East chessboard was often viewed as a political “Zero Sum” game to the backdrop of retro-diplomacy, e.g. How to secure vital sea lanes for the free flow of oil? But today’s enhanced ties host a triangular game of commerce, diplomacy and military deterrence in which the United States, and not China nor Russia, was setting the paradigm for a new Mideast policy.
The president’s speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the first stop on the whirlwind trip charmed even many of his critics.
He stated, “Before our eyes a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; Where it exports technology, not terrorism; And where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together.”
Significantly, President Trump discarded the traditional American narrative stressing, “it’s crucial for the wider world to note this great transformation has not come from Western interventionists … giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits.”
He offered a clear nationalist mantra; “Peace, prosperity and progress ultimately came not from a radical rejection of your heritage, but rather from embracing your national traditions and embracing that same heritage that you love so dearly.”
Until now the Saudis and the Gulf Arab states such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates have been stereotypically viewed by Americans as ruled by kings, sheiks and emirs, awash in petro-dollars, glitz, but little else, with super modern cities on the edge of vast oceans of sand, sea and oil. Yet these countries, beyond having small populations and large foreign workforces contrast with the “other “ Mid-East of the poor, the crowded lands of Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.
Beyond the carefully choreographed style there was truly substance.
A Who’s Who of American business executives reaped a cornucopia of deals and rewards. In Saudi Arabia there are $600 billion deals in energy, armaments, and Artificial Intelligence.
Qatar will purchase at least $243 billion of 210 Boeing aircraft.
The United Arab Emirates are purchasing $200 billion in U.S. Boeings and technology. The UAE moreover has committed to $1.4 trillion in American investments over the next decade.
For a number of years, commercial air flights from the Gulf states to the USA has expanded dramatically with prestigious carriers like Emirates, Qatar and Saudia flying to American destinations.
Qatar offered the president a “gift” of a 747 aircraft to serve as an Air Force One. The deal sadly sullies the tone of the Summit and sidetracks the otherwise near flawless narrative of the Trump trip. Accepting this golden “gift” would not be wise and offers his critics a powerful symbol.
But beyond commercial mega-deals, the president focused on long forgotten but simmering political crises following the Syrian civil war.
Trump played his cards well. He met with Syria’s new (former) Islamist leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, offering a hand of American friendship. This takes cautious optimism but by lifting punishing economic sanctions on Syria which dated to the ousted Assad regime, the U.S. positively changed the narrative for a country destroyed by fourteen years of civil war.
Millions of Syrians fled, millions more were displaced. Trump’s gambit was a big victory for neighboring Turkey too, that harbors nearly three million Syrian refugees many of whom are now expected to return home.
The president called for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords and to recognize Israel.
He warned the Teheran regime, “Iran can have a much brighter future but we’ll never allow America and its allies to be threatened with terrorism or nuclear attack. The choice is theirs to make.” No to a nuclear Iran!
Donald Trump has been rebranding the Middle East and resetting U.S. diplomacy. The president said, “We’re still just at the dawn of the bright new day that awaits for the people of the Middle East.”
John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014). [See pre-2011 Archives]
