RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump signed off on the largest defense sales agreement in history, worth $142 billion, on his first full day in Saudi Arabia Tuesday — part of a series of bilateral deals worth $600 billion in investments.
In remarks to business leaders, the president pitched Saudi Arabia as the key to building peace and prosperity in the Middle East, contrasting the kingdom with the nuclear intransigence of Iran.
“Exactly eight years ago this month, I stood in this very room and looked forward to a future in which the nations of this region would drive out the forces of terrorism and extremism, and take your place among the proudest, most prosperous, most successful nations of the world—as leaders of a modern and rising Middle East,” Trump said after taking the stage to his signature theme tune, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known widely as MBS, had promised Trump that the Kingdom would facilitate deals worth $600 billion if the president would make Saudi Arabia his first foreign stop in his second administration — and the two were openly chummy before signing the memorandums at the Royal Court in Riyadh, with Trump joking at one point that they should make the investments worth an even $1 trillion.
“Are we doing a good job so far for America? They’re only putting in a trillion dollars,” Trump told reporters while touring the investment forum exhibits before his speech.
The $142 billion defense agreement calls for the US to give the Saudis “state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms,” per a White House readout.
The deal will focus on air force advancement and space capabilities; air and missile defense; maritime and coastal security; border security and land forces modernization and communication systems upgrades.
The US makes “the best military equipment, the best missiles, the best rockets the best everything,” Trump told investors.
The president has long touted Saudi arms sales as a boon to American industry, but they have been controversial in the past.
In 2019, a bipartisan majority in Congress passed a trio of bills blocking an $8 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia and its ally, the United Arab Emirates, over concern about how they would be used in Yemen’s long-stalemated civil war.
The congressional rebuke of Saudi Arabia followed the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which weakened support for Riyadh in Washington after US intelligence agencies assed MBS ordered the operation.
Trump vetoed the restrictions, saying at the time that blocking the arms transfers “would hamper the ability of the United States to sustain and shape critical security cooperation activities.”
The $600 billion investment commitment includes letters of understanding for future cooperation on energy, future defense capabilities, mineral resources, and space and infectious diseases.
As part of the agreement, Saudi-based DataVolt, will invest $20 billion towards US AI centers; while Google, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber have pledged $80 billion in technology across both countries.
Meanwhile, US companies Hill International, Jacobs, Parsons, and AECOM are taking on infrastructure projects inside Saudi Arabia worth a total of $2 billion, including the expansion of Riyadh’s King Salman International Airport. GE Vernova will also send out gas turbines and “energy solutions” worth $14.2 billion, while Boeing will sell 737-8 passenger aircraft to Saudi jet rental service AviLease for a cool $4.8 billion.
Additionally, kingdom-based Shamekh IV Solutions has agreed to invest $5.8 billion to construct a facility in Michigan.
“It is crucial for the wider world to note, this great transformation has not come from Western interventionists flying in with lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs,” Trump said. “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.
“Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies in your own way.”
Turning to Iran, Trump said he did not want “merely to condemn the past choices of Iran’s leaders, but to offer them a new and a better path toward a much more hopeful future.”
The investment conference was packed with business leaders lobbying for more economic partnerships between the US and Saudi Arabia, which has targeted increased diversification as part of its Saudi Vision 2030 initiative.
The projects include New Murabba, a climate controlled indoor city that is said to be the world’s largest downtown project — and will include a cube skyscraper when completed at the turn of the next decade.
Trump aide Elon Musk made a surprise appearance on stage at the forum, revealing he spoke with Trump and Saudi royal family about building “tens of millions” of “humanoid robots” that he hopes will be a part of our everyday lives soon.
He also spoke to the leaders about autonomous cars and how his technology would be relevant to Saudi Arabia’s future economic vision.
The Post spotted Palantir CEO Alex Karp walking around the conference center after speaking with the two leaders at the Royal Court.
Other business leaders who had access to Trump and MBS on Tuesday included BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, Google CIO Ruth Porat, Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, and LinkedIn executive chairman Reid Hoffman.
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