Saudi Arabia gained more than the U.S. from MBS’s D.C. visit

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/11/19/saudi-arabia-mbs-mohammed-bin-salman-trump

President Donald Trump’s lies about our murdered columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, overshadowed the more tangible deliverables handed to Mohammed bin Salman during the Saudi crown prince’s visit this week. On balance, Mohammed gained more from the trip than the United States, though the Trump family’s businesses stand to profit handsomely from private deals with the Saudis.

“MBS,” as Mohammed is called, returns home with permission to purchase 48 advanced F-35 fighter jets that many in the Pentagon, and Israel, do not trust him to have, as well as nearly 300 Abrams tanks. Trump also conferred “major non-NATO ally” status on Saudi Arabia and agreed to provide it with “world-leading” artificial intelligence technology, which hopefully won’t wind up transferred to China.

In exchange, the Saudis committed to invest nearly $1 trillion in the U.S., up from the $600 billion they announced in May. They offered no time horizon for this far-fetched figure, which is roughly the size of their annual economic output. Analysts say it will be even more difficult to achieve given lower oil prices and the kingdom’s growing budget deficit due to wasteful spending on white elephant infrastructure projects. But Trump loves to tout big topline numbers and the Saudis, like other countries, are happy to play along.

The Defense Intelligence Agency recently warned in a report that China might be able to access F-35 technology if the U.S. goes ahead with the sale because Riyadh has a security partnership with Beijing. Israeli defense leaders separately balked that the deal would jeopardize its air superiority in the Middle East. Trump acknowledged that, but concluded both countries deserve the “top of the line” planes. Fortunately, Trump and MBS did not reach a deal for the U.S. to share civil nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, which is awash in cheap energy, though they agreed to keep talking about it.