The White House said Tuesday that President Trump, while in Saudi Arabia, had obtained $ 600 billion in agreements with the Saudi government and companies. But the details provided by the White House were vague and totaled less than half of that number.
And a closer look at the projects that the Provid administration shows that several were already in process before Trump taught a position.
The announcement was made just before Mr. Trump spoke with a business leaders meeting in the United States Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh, where he said that the only hottest country than the United States was Saudi Arabia.
“We are swinging,” he said. “The United States is the most popular country, with the exception of its country.”
Before Turnard towards serious foreign policy affairs, including the news that he was raising sanctions to Syria, Trump wandered through his favorite points of conversation, attacking his predecessor, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and booting to take the Swing states in the elections.
“The Arab Peninsula, beautiful place, by the way,” he said. “Beautiful place.”
The largest agreement announced was what the administration called “the largest defense sales agreement in history.” The agreement of almost $ 142 billion will provide the kingdom with avant -garde warfare services of the companies of the US defense industry.
The White House also included a commitment from the Saudi company Datavolt to advance with plans to invest $ 20 billion in artificial intelligence and energy infrastructure data centers in the United States.
He also promoted more than $ 2 billion in work that American companies were acting in Saudi infrastructure projects, including King Salman International Airport, King Salman Park and Qiddiya City, a mass entertainment complex. The construction company Jacobs announced its participation in the new Saudi airport project last August. AECOM, in the same way, had already won a contract to provide project design and management services for the Qiddiya city project.
The agreements announced by the White House totaled around $ 283 billion, less than half of the $ 600 billion promised by the Saudi heir prince, but the administration said they were “only some of the many transformative agreements insured in Saudi Arabia.” White House officials said more agreements of this type would be presented. (The organizers of the Investment Forum said 145 agreements were signed, for a total of more than $ 300 billion).
The White House said the package also included wide training and support to build the capacity of the Saudi Armed Forces.
In his comments at the conference, Trump praised the rapid development of the kingdom and said that the Biden administration had done little for the region.
It is also used after Iran, calling it “the greatest and most destructive force” that threatens the stability and prosperity of the Middle East, and promising would never have a nuclear weapon. At the same time, he said they will “a new path and a much better way towards a much better and more hopeful future.”
“I have never believed to have permanent enemies,” Trump said.
US President Drew sustained applause when he announced that the United States would raise the sanctions against Syria, giving the new government there the opportunity to rebuke a country devastated by its long civil war.
But there was silence in the crowd after he said it was his “fervent desire” that Saudi Arabia joined Abraham’s agreements, the 2020 agreement in which two or his neighbors established diplomatic relations with Israel. The normalization of relations with the Israeli government is deeply unpopular among the Saudi, according to the surveys, and the Saudi officials say that recognizing Israel would depend on the creation of a Palestinian state.
Trump also talked about the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.
“The people of Gaza deserve a much better future,” he said. “But that will not happen while their leaders choose to kidnap, torture and attack innocent men, women and children for political purposes.”
The announcement of the White House on the agreements occurred hours after Trump and the heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman signed a series of agreements between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
They included a letter of intention on future defense capabilities; A memorandum of understanding with the Department of Justice; Cooperation in space and infectious diseases; And memorandums of understanding about energy and mineral resources.
They also included an agreement between NASA and the Saudi Space Agency. So that a Saudi cubesat fly on the NASA Artemis II test flight. The Cubesat will measure aspects of the space climate to a range of distances from Earth.
The United States and Saudi Arabia also signed an agreement between the National Zoo of Smithsonian and the Royal Allula Commission to support the conservation of the in danger of extinction through an exhibition dedicated in Washington.
Before signing the agreements, Trump again encouraged Saudi Arabia to increase his investment in the United States beyond the $ 600 billion of approximately four years. Trump asked that this number rise to $ 1 billion, designed economists say the kingdom does not have such financial resources available.
“We have the world’s greatest business leaders here,” Trump said. “They will go with many checks.”
Trump spoke with those gathered in the US Saudi Investment Forum, which served as a meeting place for the rich and powerful of the world. He has stored his White House with billionaires, including Elon Musk, the richest man in the world; Scott Besent, the Secretary of the Treasury; and David O. Sacks, his AI and cryptography advisor. Everyone talked at the event.
“How do we win the career of AI?” Mr. Sacks told the gathered. “The answer is that we have to build the largest partner ecosystem. We need our friends as the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other strategic and allied partners to want to build on our technology.”
The meeting sometimes felt a large amount of Make America Again, if one in the executive directors of IBM, Blackrock and Citigroup. Many of them already have Saudi ties. A Saudi host joked that the guests were “making aviation making it great again.”
Mohammad Baharth, 40, a Saudi self -help influencer who runs a private space company, appeared in the forum with a “Trump 2028” hat combined with a red tie. “President Trump always comes as a businessman,” he said. “This is the set of the commercial mind.”
“We want technology,” Baharth said. “We want to enable. We want to train our youth. We want the skills to be a superpower in this region.”
Amazon leaders, defense giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and Halliburton attended. Also Jensen Huang, executive director of Nvidia, the largest semiconductor company in the world; Alex Karp, executive director of the Palantir Technologies software company; and Patrick Soon-Shiong, the businessman who owns Los Angeles Times.
The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, also spoke in the event. Saudi Arabia plans to organize the World Cup in 2034.
The kingdom has tried to transform on a country that depends totally on oil production in a more diverse economy. Saudi officials say that oil used to represent up to 90 percent of government income; That figure is now closer to 60 percent, while the economic activity of oil, petrochemicals and oil -driven government spending.
Larry Fink, Executive Director of Blackrock, the US investment firm, said Saudi Arabia had made “a statement to the world that we are going to do so
Trump told his advisors that he wanted to obtain promises of more than $ 1 billion of false on his trip abroad, that he will include stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, two of the richest countries in the world per capita.
Trump said that, visiting Saudi Arabia during his first term in 2017, he obtained $ 450 billion in investments in the United States. But a Tim Callen analysis, an economist and former head of the Mission of the International Monetary Fund to Saudi Arabia, discovered that this amount did not materialize completely. The export of US goods and services to Saudi Arabia, while Trump was in the position of 2017 to 2020 totaled $ 92 billion, Callen found, less than the second mandate of the president of the total door, Barack Obama.
The other two countries on Trump’s trip are expected to also deliver important agreements.
