(Photo by Trump White House via Flickr/PDM 1.0)
As Trump attempts to end the war in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia has emerged as a key player in ceasefire talks. The U.S., Ukrainian, and Russian delegations have met several times in the Kingdom. While Saudi Arabia has rarely mediated international conflicts, its role in the Ukraine peace talks reflects its growing global ambitions, which flourished under Trump’s first term. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have long enjoyed close relations. But Saudi Arabia benefited enormously under Trump’s first term and is set to gain even more this time.
A History of U.S.-Saudi Relations
The U.S.-Saudi relationship started in the early 1930s after the Saudi Royal family granted U.S. Standard Oil exclusive drilling rights to its oil-rich eastern provinces. This venture eventually became the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO), now the world’s fourth-largest company in terms of revenue.
The relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia expanded in the 1940s as oil grew increasingly important following World War II. In 1943, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared Saudi Arabia’s security vital to the United States’ national interest. Two years later, he declared that Saudi Arabia would receive American defence in exchange for oil.
President Richard Nixon fundamentally solidified the U.S.-Saudi alliance in 1974 by establishing the Petrodollar. In exchange for only accepting U.S. dollars for all its oil sales, Saudi Arabia would receive American weapons and diplomatic and military cover. The establishment of the Petrodollar has tied the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to the point that nearly every President has visited since.
How Trump Built Ties With Saudi Arabia
Prior to his presidency, Donald Trump was not a great fan of Saudi Arabia. In 1987, he took out ads claiming Saudi Arabia was not doing enough in exchange for U.S. support. He continued to feud with the country and royal family members when Prince Alwaleed bin Talal purchased Trump’s yacht in 1991.
Yet, as he started to campaign, his tone shifted. In 2015, he stated, “They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.” In 2016, he said, “I would want to protect Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia is going to have to help us economically.” There is even a report alleging that the UAE, alongside Saudi Arabia, funnelled millions into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The report claims that Saudi Arabia and the UAE poured millions of dollars into Trump’s 2016 campaign through questionable channels. In exchange, Trump would cancel the Iran Nuclear Deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran. The sanctions on Tehran would cripple its oil industry, benefitting the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia Buys Influence in Washington
After Trump’s shock victory in 2016, Saudi Arabia got to work. One of its first priorities was lobbying to repeal a U.S. law that allowed families of 9/11 victims to sue them. As part of that lobbying attempt, Saudi Arabia spent $270,000 at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. Although the effort to repeal the law was unsuccessful, Saudi Arabia started to reap the rewards of its contributions.
Saudi Arabia was Trump’s first foreign visit of his first term in May 2017. On that trip, he signed an arms deal with the Kingdom that he claimed to be worth $110 billion, but in reality, it was closer to $25 billion. That trip also yielded a deal that committed Saudi Arabia to buying $350 billion worth of American weapons over the following decade. During Trump’s visit, the Kingdom also committed to investing $20 billion in U.S. infrastructure.
The Kingdom continued to spend money at the Trump Hotel in D.C. to curry diplomatic favours. In March 2018, the Saudi Defence Ministry spent over $85,000 on hotel rooms, including a $10,000-a-night luxury suite. These combined efforts proved successful, as they bought diplomatic cover from Trump at every turn.
Saudi Arabia Asserts Its Influence
Less than a month after signing the weapons and investment deals in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom, alongside the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain, blockaded Qatar. Saudi Arabia and its allies blockaded Qatar by air, land, and sea, aiming to turn it into a Saudi puppet. Trump praised the move, claiming Qatar was financing terrorism and that his visit was “paying off.”
In November 2017, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), engaged in what he called an “anti-corruption sweep” and what critics deemed a power grab. In response to MBS wielding unprecedented power and ousting his political rivals, Trump praised MBS, claiming, “ I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.” He even endorsed MBS’s narrative by stating the people MBS arrested had been “milking” Saudi Arabia “for years.”
Trump didn’t just give Saudi Arabia rhetorical cover; he also provided tangible results. Less than a year after signing weapons deals with Saudi Arabia, Trump pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal. He then reimposed sanctions on Iran, delivering on a key demand from Saudi Arabia. In the aftermath of Trump’s withdrawal, the Saudi foreign minister said the Kingdom welcomed the decision.
Trump’s Loyalty Tests: Yemen, Khashoggi, and Beyond
As Saudi Arabia sensed it had Trump firmly in their corner, it made their most audacious moves. In August 2018, Saudi Arabia ramped up its war in Yemen, which has been considered a genocide. The Kingdom intensified its bombing campaign to retake the strategic port city of Hodeidah. During the offensive, a Saudi airstrike hit a school bus with an American-made bomb, killing 40 people—most of them children.
There was international outrage, but especially within the U.S., as many politicians condemned the Saudi atrocity, and Congress even voted to end U.S. involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Trump, however, vetoed the resolution and maintained U.S. arms sales to the Kingdom, allowing the bombing campaign in Yemen to continue. There was seemingly nothing that could stop Trump from supporting Saudi Arabia.
Trump faced perhaps his most significant loyalty test just one month later. On September 2nd, 2018, Saudi Arabia assassinated Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. In the immediate aftermath, Saudi Arabia remained silent. Trump took six days to state he “was concerned about Khashoggi’s disappearance.” In the weeks that followed, Trump alternated between condemning and defending Saudi Arabia.
Two months later, the CIA released a report confirming that Crown Prince MBS ordered Khashoggi’s murder. Yet, in a stunning statement, Trump contradicts his intelligence agency by saying that “maybe he didn’t know [about the assassination].” Trump then followed up his statement, saying that they spend hundreds of billions in the U.S. and that he would be a fool not to do business with them.
Trump continued to support Saudi Arabia rhetorically and materially even after Khashoggi’s murder and the school bus bombing. He overrode Congress three separate times to approve additional arms sales to the Kingdom. He also directed his U.N. ambassador to veto a resolution condemning Saudi Arabia’s conduct in its war in Yemen. Less than three weeks after Khashoggi’s killing, Trump approved the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia Doubles Down on Trump
Saudi Arabia and MBS recognized how important Trump was to them, which is why they were disappointed in his reelection loss in November 2020. MBS only congratulated Joe Biden 24 hours after his victory—an eon in diplomatic relations between allies.
Biden campaigned on holding Saudi Arabia and MBS accountable for Khashoggi’s murder, as well as ending U.S. support for the Kingdom’s war in Yemen. Seeing hostility from Biden and his new administration, MBS felt isolated and lacked U.S. political allies until Trump declared he was running again in late 2022.
Saudi Arabia also invested $2 billion in Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, through his private equity firm, Affinity Partners. Saudi Arabia also directly invested in Trump by hosting its new golf league at Trump-run courses. The Kingdom’s investment proved to be a lifeline as other major golf tournaments blacklisted Trump after the January 6th insurrection. In July 2024, The Trump organization announced that its next series of hotels would be in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia valued the hotel at $530 million.
Trump’s Second Term: Power, Profit, and Payback
With his return to the Oval Office, Trump is set to once again make Saudi Arabia a central focus of his foreign policy. Currently, this is most evident in their role of hosting and mediating talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war. He also stated that he would meet Putin in Saudi Arabia rather than in Switzerland, where Biden met Putin before the war. Trump is also set to have Saudi Arabia as his first foreign trip again.
These developments signal that Trump is committed to Saudi Arabia, yet this time around, he is seeking more concessions from the Kingdom. Shortly after his inauguration, he demanded that MBS invest over $1 trillion in the U.S. and that they lower oil prices.
MBS will likely continue investing heavily in the U.S., having already committed $600 billion. But it seems unlikely that MBS would invest a trillion, as he has the 2034 World Cup to prepare for and the Neom city, which has ballooned to an estimated $8.8 trillion.
With Saudi Arabia investing heavily in Trump and the President reportedly adopting an ‘I don’t care’ attitude, the Kingdom looks poised to gain even more in his second term. Trump has already started bombing Yemen, with the stated goal of stopping the Houthis’ blockade against Israel’s genocide. Yet, Saudi Arabia is also set to benefit from this, as it strengthens its position in the region.
Edited by Atena Abbaspourbenis
