Dem
47
GOP
53
Why do we hope that, you may ask? Why, because of all the ballwashing that Donald Trump did for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman yesterday. Yes, that's a pretty vulgar way to put it. But it's a vulgar situation overall, so we feel OK about our choice of phrase.
MbS visited the White House yesterday for his latest face-to-face meeting with Trump. The administration pulled out all the stops, with the Marine Band playing tunes, and a flyover from some F-35s, and all other bells and whistles. And then they got down to talking turkey. The Saudis want U.S. military hardware, and Trump was pleased to agree to that, committing to the sale of 300 American tanks and an as-yet-unspecified number of the F-35s.
Now, a skilled negotiator—someone who is experienced in the art of the deal, for example—would have used those tanks and planes to gain leverage over the Saudis. In particular, the U.S. wants that nation to normalize relations with Israel. That could have been a condition of the weapons sale, but it is not. Trump himself said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will get the materiel with "no strings attached."
As a bonus, Trump also delivered a little spin, free of charge. Talking to reporters, the President made two claims about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a murder that the CIA concluded in 2018 was ordered personally by MbS. First, Trump said that, "Things happened, but [MbS] knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that." Then, the President followed up by implying that Khashoggi basically got what he deserved: "You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about." As the cherry on top of the sundae, Trump also suggested that the Saudi government had no connection to the 9/11 attacks, despite copious evidence to the contrary.
Trump did get something out of the talks, we should note. MbS had already committed to investing $600 billion in the United States, and yesterday he upped that figure to $1 trillion. The entire annual GDP of Saudi Arabia is $1.2 trillion, which should give some useful indication as to how likely it is that the Saudis will deliver on that promise. Does Trump really believe that money is coming down the pike? Is he that delusional? Or does he know it's a load of camel manure, but he repeats it nonetheless because it's a good talking point? We honestly don't know, at this point.
The investment won't be $1 trillion, but suppose it is $300 billion spread over 10 years. What does "investment" mean, actually? Is MbS going to build a giant factory to build camel saddles in the U.S. and employ thousands of workers? Not likely. What he might do is buy up American companies in whole or in part. For example, suppose he bought a controlling interest in Ford or General Motors or both. Then he could use his power on the board of directors to have the company get out of the electric car business and focus primarily on big gas-guzzling SUVs. Alternatively, he could buy up U.S. chip manufacturing companies in order to get at their process technology and trade secrets in order to develop Saudi companies to compete with them. He could give big grants to top universities to open campuses in Saudi Arabia to train the next generation of Saudi engineers in order to diversify his economy. There are many ways he could "invest" that money to the benefit of Saudi Arabia and to the detriment of the U.S. Trump probably hasn't even thought of what MbS could buy with a few hundred billion dollars. We suspect MbS is already thinking about what is on his shopping list. The investment could easily end up being a huge net negative for the U.S. by giving Saudi Arabia a powerful influence in key parts of the U.S. economy.
Whatever is going through his head when it comes to the $1 trillion, what Trump really cares about is his family's own personal financial interests. And the most concrete thing he secured yesterday was the Saudis' ongoing commitment to the $2 billion investment fund they have put in the hands of First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner. It's really a brilliant investment by MbS & Co. Even if Kushner, who is not exactly the world's most talented businessman, loses some giant chunk of the investment, the Saudis have paid a relative pittance to have the government of the United States in their hip pockets (assuming thawbs have pockets). Meanwhile, Kushner and family get to pocket the exorbitant, way-above-the-industry-norm management fees they "negotiated" with the Saudi government. Everybody wins. Well, except for the American people, of course. But who cares about them? (Z)