US President Donald Trump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Royal Palace, Riyadh, May 13, 2025
President Donald Trump is already looming as a Colossus striding 21st century history. Acutely conscious that he’s left with less than four years to create his legacy Trump is undoubtedly a man in a hurry. Amazingly, his agenda in the current visit was weighty enough but he found a bit space in it for India and Pakistan as well.
Trump’s speech at Riyadh on May 13 during a historic visit to the region that will mark the remaking of the Middle East, stands out for the extraordinary vision he has that sets him apart altogether from his peer group today in world politics, not only in the western world but globally.
The highlights of the visit are:
- Trump revives the US-Saudi alliance by rejuvenating it with an alchemy built on economic cooperation and trade and based on equality and mutual respect.
- Much as the security relationship continues, its character changes fundamentally as Trump realises that Saudis are themselves done with the interventionist outlook as the US’ subaltern in the region, and is now focused on transforming its oil-based economy by diversifying it and, importantly, initiating all-round social reforms, against very heavy odds, by breaking the crusts to modernise the country and its society so as to bring about the kind of social mobility and inclusivity that is a pre-requisite for optimal development of the country.
- Trump is not prescriptive at all but goes out of the way to recognise and appreciate publicly that the region is figuring out the pathway to move forward in the 21st century by optimally bringing its native genius to bear upon the challenges confronting it in many directions.
- Trump’s visit has a massive business content with deals being signed for over $600 billion and a monumental arms deal that alone is worth another $140 billion. Trump has himself kept a target of $1 trillion worth Saudi investments in his MAGA project.
- US-Saudi business is adapting quickly to the Crown Prince’s prioritisation of the Kingdom’s New Economy pivoted on frontier, high-tech areas, especially AI. Elon Musk led the business delegation accompanying Trump.
- Trump has struck a great bonding with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who is everything that Trump admires in a world leader — strong, powerful, capable of taking difficult decisions and decisive and hard-working (Trump who sleeps something like 4 hrs a day, asked him whether he finds time to sleep) — and least of all, fired up by a hugely ambitious vision to remake his country and rewrite history.
This bonding (at a personal level too) most certainly means a whole-hearted US endorsement for the upcoming hugely sensitive Saudi succession. Simply put, US is guaranteeing its support for Prince Salman’s smooth succession, anchored on the estimation that and an expected reign by the youthful monarch for decades to come in the pivotal state in the Arabian Peninsula will transform the entire ‘Muslim Middle East’ where Arab Spring once failed.
Trump’s meeting with Syrian President while in Saudi Arabia and the lifting of US sanctions against that country is a stunning turnaround of US regional strategy considering Ahmed al-Sharaa’s past links with al-Qaeda. Taken together with Trump’s decision to engage with Hamas and the Houthis, as well as his push for normalisation with Iran (ignoring Israeli reservations), the US is crossing the Rubicon as regards Islamism. This is no small matter.
Trump undertook this regional tour as his first overseas visit in the presidential term — keeping Israel out of the itinerary — also because of a compelling subplot that he intended to pursue, namely, US’ normalisation with Iran. The talks are going well and if a US-Iran deal materialises in the coming weeks or months, don’t be surprised if the American embassy in Tehran gets reopened. Basically, Trump is hoping that the Saudi reformist trajectory will inevitably rub on Iran too, which will mean a preference across the region for ploughshares to swords for advancement of national interests.
By the way, during his speech in Riyadh, Trump hinted that like the Iran issue, the Indian subcontinent is also very much on his mind — and he jokingly proposed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a great friend of India and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, hosting a meal in DC for the Indian and Pakistani leaders!
Could DC be the “neutral site” Rubio referred to in his announcement on May 10 regarding the “US-brokered ceasefire” between India-Pakistan talks, which drives the Indian establishment crazy? It’s apparently so!
The following excerpts from Trump’s speech in Riyadh regarding Iran can be taken as a reflection of the winds of change sweeping West Asia and the US’ determination to be in sync with the zeitgeist.
QUOTE:
“If only the Iranian regime had focused on building their nation up instead of tearing the region down.
“Yet I’m here today not merely to condemn the past chaos of Iran’s leaders, but to offer them a new path and a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future. As I’ve shown repeatedly, I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be very profound, which obviously they are, in the case of Iran, I have never believed in having permanent enemies. I am different than a lot of people think. I don’t like permanent enemies, but sometimes you need enemies to do the job and you have to do it right. Enemies get you motivated.
“In fact, some of the closest friends of the United States of America are nations we fought wars against in generations past, and now they’re our friends and our allies. I want to make a deal with Iran. If I can make a deal with Iran, I’ll be very happy if we’re going to make your region and the world a safer place. But if Iran’s leadership rejects this olive branch and continues to attack their neighbours, then we will have no choice but to inflict massive maximum pressure, drive Iranian oil exports to zero, like I did before. Did you know that, they were a virtually bankrupt country because of what I did, they had no money for terror, they had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah and take all action required to stop the regime from ever having a nuclear weapon. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
But with that said, Iran can have a much brighter future but will never allow America and its allies to be threatened with terrorism or nuclear attack. The choice is theirs to make. We really want them to be a successful country. We want them to be a wonderful, safe, great country, but they cannot have a nuclear weapon. This is an offer that will not last forever. The time is right now for them to choose, right now. We don’t have a lot of time to wait. Things are happening at a very fast pace, they’re happening right here. They’re happening at a very fast pace, so they have to make their move right now, one way or the other. Make your move. As I said in my inaugural address, my greatest hope is to be a peacemaker and to be a unifier. I don’t like war…”
UNQUOTE
Then, Trump abruptly changed course to draw the analogy of heightened tensions in South Asia. He said,
“Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan, and I used trade to a large extent to do it. I said, fellas, “Come on. Let’s make a deal. Let’s do some trading. Let’s not trade nuclear missiles. Let’s trade the things that you make so beautifully.
“And they both have very powerful leaders, very strong leaders, good leaders, smart leaders, and it all stopped. Hopefully it’ll remain that way, but it all stopped. I was very proud of Marco Rubio and all of the people that worked so hard. Marco, stand up. You did on that. Thank you. JD Vance, Marco, the whole group worked with you, but it was a great job. And I think they’re actually getting along. Maybe we can even get them together a little bit, Marco, where they go out and have a nice dinner together. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
The full text of Trump’s speech is here.