Trump promises arms sales to the Gulf, but can he deliver?
In a wide-ranging speech in the Saudi capital on Tuesday, President Donald Trump sought to break with past US administrations and sell his own personal vision for regional development based on national sovereignty, private investment and personal ties between leaders.
Trump lavished praise upon Arab rulers for their countries’ accomplishments, going so far as to condemn US military intervention in the region in recent decades. But beneath the bombast, Trump’s trip has produced few if any signs of core strategy change in Washington.
Rather than abandoning the Middle East, Trump is signaling major reinvestment in the region, building on past administrations' relationships with Arab states in the Gulf as the main pillars of US strategy.
But the foundations of those pillars are shifting — largely out of necessity — from major defense sales into collaboration on tech development and artificial intelligence.
