Trump says he could visit Saudi Arabia for $500bn in Saudi trade

US President Donald Trump broke with American tradition in 2017 when he chose Saudi Arabia as his first visit to a foreign country as president, in a trip that led to the photo-op of Trump clutching an ominous glowing orb alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz 

On Monday, as Trump signed a slew of executive orders, the president was asked about that trip and why he chose Saudi Arabia.

Trump responded that it was because the Saudis agreed to purchase hundreds of billions of dollars of American goods, adding that he would do it again. But this time, the price tag would be $500bn.

“I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450bn dollars worth of our product. I said I’ll do it, but you have to buy American product and they agreed to do that,” Trump told a reporter in the Oval Office on Monday.

When asked where he plans to go for his first foreign visit this time around, Trump responded: “Well, I don’t know. If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another 450 or 500, we’d raise it for all the inflation. I think I probably would go there.”

It’s unclear whether Trump was serious in his remarks. However, the comment highlights how Trump approaches policy by prioritising American trade and the US economy above all other issues.

US-Saudi relations soured under the previous administration of President Joe Biden due to Biden’s criticism of the killing of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Despite an attempt by the Biden administration to fix their relationship in the latter half of its tenure, the ties never seemed to fully warm.

Under Trump, Saudi Arabia and the US had a much friendlier relationship, and Trump’s son-in-law and former senior advisor, Jared Kushner, had a personal friendship with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

That friendship came into play at the time of Khashoggi’s killing, which was done at the hands of Saudi agents. With Khashoggi being a US resident, his killing caused shockwaves in Washington, with calls for Trump to condemn his murder.

The previous Trump administration never altered its relationship with Riyadh despite the outrage over Khashoggi’s killing and also blocked a bipartisan congressional measure aimed at ending US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Before entering office this time around, the Trump Organisation also signed a brand deal for a luxury tower real estate project in Saudi Arabia, another sign of the deepening ties between the Trump Organisation and Dar Al Arkan, the parent company of Dar Global, the real estate developer working on the tower project.

After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, he was also seen on multiple occasions with Yasir al-Rumayyan, head of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, who is also currently chairing the new LIV Golf promotion.