by WorldTribune Staff, May 14, 2025 Real World News
Soon after landing and being given the purple carpet treatment by his Saudi Arabia hosts, President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a massive Saudi investment deal, warned Iran to "make peace or else," and said he would be lifting all sanctions on Syria.
In a statement following a signing ceremony in Riyadh, the White House said, "Saudi Arabia’s $600-billion commitment to invest in the United States, building economic ties that will endure for generations to come."
The largest investments detailed in the agreement included a $20 billion investment by Saudi Arabia's DataVolt in AI data centers and energy infrastructure in the United States, an $80 billion investment in "cutting-edge transformative technologies in both countries" by Google, DataVolt, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD and Uber, as well as a record $142 billion defense package.
"The United States and Saudi Arabia signed the largest defense sales agreement in history – nearly $142 billion, providing Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms," the White House said.
In a speech before the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum, Trump said the stock market is “gonna go a lot higher." He said "People should have listened. We’ve never had anything like this," and he cited the "explosion of investment and jobs." Business executives "weren’t that happy when they saw me, a month ago, but changed their tune as markets rose."
"We are rocking: The United States is the hottest country, with the exception of your country," Trump said, pointing to Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the front row before him.
“Mohammed do you sleep at night? How do you sleep?” he said, addressing the crown prince. "Critics doubted it was possible, what you’ve done, but over the past eight years, Saudi Arabia has proved the critics totally wrong."
"...Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your own destinies in your own way."
Trump said that it was his "fervent wish" that Saudi Arabia "will soon be joining the Abraham Accords" - but he ultimately conceded that the kingdom will do it in "it's own time".
“It will be a special day in the Middle East, with the whole world watching, when Saudi Arabia joins us. And you’ll be greatly honoring me, and you’ll be greatly honoring all of those people that have fought so hard for the Middle East. And I really think it’s going to be something special — but you’ll do it in your own time. And that’s what I want, and that’s what you want, and that’s the way it’s going to be."
On Iran, Trump said he has "never believed in having permanent enemies. I am different than a lot of people think. I don’t like permanent enemies. Sometimes you need enemies to do the job, and you have to do it right. Enemies get you motivated."
The president continued: "I want to make a deal with Iran. I can make a deal with Iran. I’ll be very happy if we’re going to make your region and the world a safer place." He offered a "much brighter future" if Teheran will do a deal. “God sits in judgement. My job is to protect the United States of America.”
"If Iran’s leadership rejects this olive branch and continues to attack their neighbors, then we will have no choice but to inflict massive, maximum pressure … and take all action required to stop the regime from ever having a nuclear weapon. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon."
On lifting sanctions on Syria, Trump said: "Syria, they’ve had their share of travesty, war, killing in many years. That’s why my administration has already taken the first steps toward restoring normal relations between the United States and Syria for the first time in more than a decade.
"The sanctions were brutal and crippling and served as an important — really an important function — nevertheless, at the time. But now it’s their time to shine. So I say, 'Good luck, Syria.' Show us something very special."
Trump also slammed neo-cons and leftist interventionists: "In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built—and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies they did not understand. The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neo-cons, or liberal non-profits like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad."
On Gaza, Trump said: "The people of Gaza deserve a much better future. But that will or cannot occur as long as their leaders choose to kidnap, torture and target innocent men, women and children for political ends."
Trump also proclaimed that he ordered the cessation of U.S.-Houthi hostilities in the Red Sea.
Trump's speech in full:
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