On Thursday, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that it would increase investment and trade with the United States by $600 billion over the next four years.
In Trump’s second term, the call with Salman, popularly called as MBS, is understood to be the first with any foreign leader. Trump has had a close relationship with Saudi Arabia and MBS, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, over the years. The Saudi investment pledge has followed similar pledges by businesses that are essentially public displays of fealty to Trump.
Last month, Softbank pledged to invest $100 billion in the United States in the next four years. Just yesterday, OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle announced a Trump-endorsed joint initiative called ‘Stargate’ under which they would invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, such as data centres, over next four years.
The Saudi state media quoted MBS as telling Trump that he had the ability to create “unprecedented economic prosperity” in the United States and that Saudi Arabia wanted to participate in that.
Trump’s 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia upended a tradition of US presidents first heading to the United Kingdom as their first trip abroad. It also underscored his administration’s close ties to the rulers of the oil-rich Gulf states as his eponymous real estate company has pursued deals across the region as well.
