Trump's Gulf Business Tour: Deal-Making at the Forefront

In a tour marked by a focus on business over foreign diplomacy, President Trump embarks on a significant trip through Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, seeking deals that surpass $1 trillion while facing ethical scrutiny over lavish gifts.

President Trump departed yesterday for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the beginning of his four-day Gulf business tour. With an agenda rooted in deal-making, Trump envisions announcing financial agreements exceeding $1 trillion during his visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Rather than pursuing a grand foreign policy strategy, Trump aims to foster a series of transactional relationships with Gulf nations, promoting these deals as vital for job creation among American workers.

Of note, Trump has been pushing Saudi leaders for investments matching their whole annual GDP. This journey seemingly dovetails with Trump’s own expanding business ventures. Currently, his family has six pending business transactions with a Saudi-owned real estate firm, a cryptocurrency deal in collaboration with a U.A.E. partner, and plans for a golf and luxury villa community in Qatar.

Meanwhile, the Qatari royal family has gone to extraordinary lengths to court Trump, reportedly offering a luxury Boeing 747-8, to be upgraded as Air Force One. When questioned about the ethical implications of accepting such a lavish gift, Trump dismissed concerns, suggesting that anyone who turns down such an offer must be "stupid."

In other news, Hamas has released Edan Alexander, the last American hostage held in Gaza, characterizing the act as an effort to gain U.S. support for a resolution to the ongoing conflict.

On the political front, President Biden recently underwent a health check due to a small nodule found on his prostate. Meanwhile, Trump's administration is contemplating a significant sale of AI chips to the Emirati firm G42, previously scrutinized for its connections to China. The Supreme Court has been approached for permission to deport nearly 200 Venezuelan migrants detained in Texas, accused of gang affiliations, while a plane bringing white South Africans granted refugee status recently landed in the U.S., a development Trump has termed a case of "genocide," a claim unsupported by official statistics.