Transcription
I will say that we'll be selling F-35 dollars 3 billion. It's no secret that Donald Trump loves Saudi Arabia. Back in 2017, his very first trip as president was to Riad. It featured golden swords and orb photos. And in his second term, he did it again. Trump's first foreign stop this year was not to London or Ottawa. It was Riyad.
Straight to Muhammad bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and the de facto ruler of the kingdom. In fact, by now the Trump MBS bromance is global legend. Trump cannot stop praising NBS and NBS cannot stop hosting Trump. And now the Saudi crown prince is coming to Washington. It's about an hour from now. In about an hour from now, he will be at the White House to meet President Donald Trump.
And this is a very significant visit. This is NBS's first trip to Washington since 2018. You may remember what happened that year in 2018. Jamal Kashogi was killed. He was a Saudi dissident. He was killed in the Saudi embassy in Turkey reportedly on the orders of the Saudi crown prince. And when the case came to light, every Western nation isolated Saudi Arabia, but not Donald Trump. We are going to leave nothing uncovered. With that being said, the king firmly denied any knowledge of it. He didn't really know. Maybe I I don't want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?
So, the world treated NBS as a global pariah, but Donald Trump did not. He clearly likes the crown prince too much. And now MBS is going to the Oval Office to see him. Of course, it's about more than their mutual admiration. This trip has a purpose. Saudi Arabia wants to be seen as a modern, dynamic, and indispensable power. And for that, it needs the United States of America, specifically America's technology, America's nuclear expertise, America's fighter jets, and yes, America's political blessing. NBS needs all of it.
Look at the items on this on his agenda. The number one agenda item is the F-35 fighter jets. Saudi Arabia wants them and Trump says he's ready to sell. Yeah. No, I am planning on doing that. They want to buy. You've been a great ally. They've got to like us very much. Look at the Iran situation. What we did in terms of uh obliterating, you know, their we obliterated their nuclear capability. Yeah. I I will say that we will be doing that. will be selling F-35s.
Now, this is a very important development because the F-35 is not just any other fighter jet. It is America's best so far and the most advanced technologically. The US guards this jet like Willy Wonka guards chocolate. It is shared sparingly. Israel has a few F-35s, a few NATO allies have them, and Riyad has long asked for them, but until now, Washington refused. Donald Trump is changing that. He says he will approve the sale and the American defense establishment is wary because Saudi Arabia is also close to China. They've been getting cozy on a lot of things including security, telecom, drone research, Saudi Arabia and China. So the Americans fear that their F-35 tech could end up in Chinese hands and that is why they did not allow the sale so far.
Plus they have one more problem and that is Israel. Israel has 45 of these jets, 45 F-35 jets. Saudi Arabia has requested or is said to have requested for 48 jets. And you know what that means? It could change the power dynamics of West Asia. Of course, Israel is not in favor of the sale. The IDF, the Israeli Defense Force, has formally opposed the plan. They do not want Trump to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia. They believe it will erode Israel's air superiority.
But Trump is having none of it because in this deal he sees only two things, money and leverage. He believes giving F-35s would pull Saudi Arabia firmly into the American orbit. And there's another prize that he's chasing, the Abraham Accords. That is a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel. As of today, they do not recognize each other officially. They have no diplomatic ties, no official diplomatic ties, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Trump wants to change that. And if he does, he would change West Asia forever. It's a deal that he's long pursued. In his first term, he got four countries to normalize ties with Israel. The UAE, Bahrain, the Sudan, and Morocco. Saudi Arabia would be the big prize because it is the de facto leader of the Muslim world. It is the custodian of Mecca and Madina, the holiest sites in Islam.
Trump wants it to recognize Israel, but for the Saudis, it will come at a huge political cost and Crown Prince MBS knows that. He cannot abandon the Palestinian cause. He cannot abandon Gaza after what has happened. He will want a clear path to Palestinian statethood and Israel may not agree to that. So, normalization of ties may be tough. Trump may not get that deal in a hurry, but he might settle for something else today. Saudi money for the reconstruction of Gaza. Something symbolic, something that he can talk about because often political storytelling matters more than political reality.
And beyond that, this is about interests. Everyone pretends that foreign policy is about principles, but let's be honest, it's also about money. Trump has business projects in the Gulf, towers, golf tournaments, real estate proposals, and Saudi Arabia has massive sovereign wealth funds. Billions of dollars have already moved. Billions more could follow. For MBS, this visit is about is about legitimacy. For Trump, it's about power. And for both men, it's about rewriting their own story lines. They promised glory. They delivered fear. They shaped nations. They scarred generations. From brutal purges to propaganda machines, from stolen power to violent falls from the throne. Welcome to the dictator, a series that strips away the myth and then exposes the men behind the tyranny. History remembers their power. First Post reveals their truth.