President Donald Trump declared that he and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are making the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia “stronger and more powerful than it’s ever been before,” as he announced that Washington will be selling some of the “greatest military equipment ever built” to Riyadh.
After having given Saudi Arabia the status of a major non-NATO ally of the United States, Trump said, “A stronger and more capable alliance will advance the interests of both countries, and it will serve the highest interest of peace. And we all share in peace, and we’ve never had and been so close to truly everlasting peace in the Middle East,” Trump emphasized.
His comments came during the US-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum on Wednesday, a day after the crown prince pledged that Riyadh would increase its investment in the United States to nearly USD 1 trillion.
Trump pushed bin Salman to go higher. “Could you make it $1.5 trillion?” he asked.
Trump and bin Salman applauded USD 270 billion in agreements and sales signed between dozens of companies at the Kennedy Center conference, including planned purchases of 600,000 Nvidia (NVDA.O) AI chips by HUMAIN, a government-backed Saudi AI firm.
“The partnership between our two nations is among the most consequential in the entire world, and together, the crown prince and I are making an alliance stronger and more powerful than it’s ever been before,” Trump said.
He contrasted his relationship with Saudi Arabia to those under previous administrations, asserting that ties had been weaker with former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. “We’ve had good relationships, and frankly, not good. You didn’t have a good relationship with Barack Hussein Obama. You didn’t have a good relationship with sleepy Joe Biden, but you had a great relationship with me, and now it’s as good as it was, and probably even better,” he added.
“We signed a historic strategic defence agreement yesterday… We’re going to be selling Saudi Arabia some of the greatest military equipment ever built. We build the best military equipment in the world by far. That’s why we do the most business, including nearly 300 American-made tanks, which you’re buying, many other things, the aeroplanes…,” Trump said at the US-Saudi Investment Forum as he annouced plans to sell advanced F35 stealth fight jets to Saudi Arabia.
“We signed a historic strategic defence agreement yesterday… We’re going to be selling Saudi Arabia some of the greatest military equipment ever built. We build the best military equipment in the world by far. That’s why we do the most business, including nearly 300 American-made tanks, which you’re buying, many other things, the aeroplanes…,” Trump said at the US-Saudi Investment Forum.
Trump noted that the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia has probably grown stronger after they “very quickly” “obliterated” the nuclear capability of Iran and likened it to a “real cloud over the whole Middle East.”
“We’ve had good relationships. And now it is and probably even better because we took the dark cloud away from your country. It was called Iran and its nuclear capability. We obliterated that very quickly and strongly. But that was a real cloud over the whole Middle East and now they wanna make a deal… We’ll be doing that probably. But that was a terrible cloud that you had to live with for a long time; for 22 years, they were thinking about doing that. That was even before the B2s. The B2s were undetectable and they dropped their payload and every single bomb hit its exact mark, which was a shaft going deep into the mountain…and it was total obliteration. But they want to make a deal. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
Additionally, groundbreaking agreements were signed in civil nuclear energy, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence, alongside the expanded investment commitments.
Trump thanked Crown Prince for bringing “thousands of jobs and great opportunities” to the United States, emphasizing the economic benefits of the deepening US-Saudi partnership.
