Trump seeks to secure trade contracts, economic investment over geopolitics, diplomatic initiatives

We can now bring in Simon Mabon, professor of international relations at Lancaster University. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for joining us on the program today. What is Donald Trump hoping to get out of his visit to Saudi Arabia and the wider region? Is it only about business contracts? Well, I think to understand Donald Trump’s uh foreign policy, we need to understand a bit about Donald Trump. He’s a businessman. He’s a transactional man. And I think that what he’s trying to do with going to to the Gulf right now is certainly to secure a lot of of uh trade contracts to secure economic investment in the US, but it’s also to build up those personal relationships that he had the last time around to ensure that they are still there to keep the the Gulf States incredibly close to keep them friendly and then from there there is the chance of of working on on other things be it political issues diplomatic initiatives, uh, regional security architecture, but for Trump, it’s transactional. So, of course, it all starts with the money. Okay, it all starts with the money. The last time around, uh, during his first presidency, Donald Trump also visited uh, Saudi Arabia in his first trip as president. But back then, he also visited uh, the state of Israel. This time, there’s no trip to Israel being planned. The US relationship with Israel may be ironclad, but what is a relationship like between the two men right now, between the two leaders? Well, that seems to be deteriorating by the day. There’s a number of different divergent points that have have seemingly pushed the two leaders, if not necessarily the two states, on different paths. and they of course speak to the approach to uh to Gaza, to everything that is happening in Gaza and Israel’s continued devastation of Gaza, but also on Iran. Uh we know that Trump is pushing for a nuclear agreement with Iran, which is ironic given that he was the one that withdrew from the first joint comprehensive plan of action, the nuclear deal, uh back in his first administration. And that is not something that Benjamin Netanyahu wants Trump to do. He does not want a new Iranian nuclear deal. But I think one of the other reasons for Trump being in the Gulf right now and not necessarily visiting Israel or or anywhere else in the Middle East for that matter is to shore up support for any deal that does eventually get over the line. And I would imagine that a deal will get over the line in terms of the nuclear agreement. But to do that, of course, he needs to ensure that the Gulf States are on board. And I think he’s prioritizing that over Gaza, which perhaps tells you a lot about his view of Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the war there because we also have since his first term in office, Tehran and and Riyad that have normalized ties uh thanks to China. Now yesterday we saw the release of Idan and Alexander. We saw that the US essentially bypassed Israel and spoke directly with Hamas to secure uh the the release of the last Israeli-American hostage held by Hamas. Today we have Benjamin Netanyahu who is saying that there’s no situation where the war war in Gaza stops and he said said that Israel is reportedly working with other countries to take in Gazans. Now Donald Trump was the brainchild the architect of those Abraham Accords we saw during his first term in office. Uh then uh does Washington now realize that the much hyped normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel may never happen even though Joe Biden right till the end of his presidency was working very hard for that to happen. Yeah, he was working very hard and I think that was one of the many things that Joe Biden dramatically got wrong with his approach to the Middle East. He should have realized very quickly that that after October 7, after Israel’s engagement in Gaza that led to the destruction of of huge amounts of of property and a catastrophic loss of life that the Saudis could not, even if they necessarily wanted to, they could not normalize with Israel under those conditions. And I think Trump is perhaps recognizing that that there is a different dynamic at play now. as much as he may wish to have a a broader uh financially driven Middle East and some type of neoliberal utopia as we saw with that AI produced video of him on the beach with Elon Musk and indeed Benjamin Netanyahu. I think there’s perhaps an acceptance that that is not a reality right now which perhaps explains why he’s doubling down on the Gulf and trying to get the Iran deal over the line. But let’s not forget that in the uh in the election campaign, he did hang his hat on this idea of being a peacemaker, be it in in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine or indeed uh in the the war in Gaza and the destruction there. I don’t think he’s going to be wholly supportive of of the mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. I think that would be hugely destabilizing for the region as long with being illegal under international law. But that would I think um destabilize Trump’s vision for for an economically prosperous Middle East. And I think this goes back to what I was saying right at the start. This is a transactional man. The money matters and it all starts with the money. Given that Edan Alexander was released by Hamas normally in the past when Hamas has released prisoners, hostages uh Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel in exchange. Yesterday we didn’t see that happen. It was just one hostage that Hamas uh released. Could we have ju because Donald Trump is in the region and is going to be listening to heavy weights in the region like Saudi Arabia, like the United Arab Emirates, like Qatar, could we have real pressure this time around from the United States to either end the war or allow in humanitarian aid which has been blocked for over two months now? Yeah, it’s it’s over 60 days since any type of humanitarian aid has got into Gaza, which has really had a devastating impact on the people there. The conditions are squalid, the conditions are deplorable, and this is entirely avoidable. Of course, I can’t envision a a situation where Trump is able to exert so much pressure on Mr. Netanyahu to to stop the war, but I can envisionage a scenario where he’s able to get humanitarian aid in. And I think that’s probably one of the reasons for Hamas releasing this hostage without the release of Palestinian prisoners in return. So I think that’s probably what it is. It’s it’s about those small sort of maneuverings and getting aid in is absolutely imperative right now. Of course, so is stopping the war, but right now people are starving, people are suffering, people are dying because of a lack of food, malnutrition, and disease. What I find difficult to understand with Donald Trump, I know you say he’s a transactional president, but and and now we see this embrace of the Middle Eastern powers, but at the same time at home, uh, pro Palestinian demonstrators are being muffled on college campuses in the United States. How do you explain that? Well, look, I’m not an expert on Donald Trump. I’m not a psychologist. I’m sure there are many people who can do a better job of articulating a read of him, but I don’t see that those two things are necessarily incompatible. That he’s got this transactional view of how he wants his foreign policy to be. He’s got a transactional view of how diplomacy wants to be. But then at home, he has also uh got a domestic agenda that he needs to adhere to. He’s got support bases that are staunchly pro-Israel, that are staunchly anti-Palestinian, that veer into the racist, that veer into the xenophobic. And he needs to be seen to be doing something to quash that by his own supporters, by his own constituencies. And so the two don’t necessarily sit neatly logically together, but that doesn’t mean that they are incompatible. And I think that’s what we’re starting to see here, that he’s doing these things on the world stage, doing things that may seem at odds with that at home, but that’s what makes Donald Trump who he is. He’s a transactional, somewhat contradictory figure, and that’s what’s made it so so elusive to really understand what he’s all about, I think. Interesting point, Simon B. We’re going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us on the program today.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday trumpeted major business deals with Saudi Arabia as he basked in a lavish royal welcome on the first state visit of his second term. The Saudi hosts escorted Air Force One into the kingdom with fighter jets before bringing out long-stretching guards of honour and sending flag-waving horseback cavalry to accompany Trump’s motorcade to the palace. Greeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and flanked by business leaders including Elon Musk, Trump’s visit underscores a shift toward transactional diplomacy. For deeper analysis, FRANCE 24’s Delano D’Souza speaks with Simon Mabon, Professor of International Politics and Middle East Studies and Director of SEPAD at Lancaster University.
#MBS #GulfStates #DonaldTrump

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen

11 comments

  4. So now we know this is one of the reasons why he passed up attending the four US soldiers funeral after the accident in Lithuania to meet with Saudis in Mar-A-Lago. Something sinister is brewing!! 😏

  7. So few media outlets are prepared to call these occurrences what they are. Trump is enriching himself at the American electorates' expense. You won't have enough money to put food on the table, but he'll have his flying palace and a bevy of grateful autocrats.

Comments are closed.