The White House welcome for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was the most extravagant of Donald Trump’s presidency, signalling a clear shift in US foreign policy priorities. The visit, billed as a working trip, featured a south lawn greeting with mounted guards and a fighter jet flypast. Inside the Oval Office, Trump repeatedly praised the prince and dismissed a journalist’s question about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, calling the journalist’s network “ABC” and insisting the prince knew nothing about the killing, contradicting US intelligence conclusions.
Trump confirmed that the F-35 stealth fighter jets flown in the flypast would be sold to Saudi Arabia with the same specifications as those sold to Israel, breaking a longstanding US policy of maintaining Israel’s “qualitative military edge” in the region. “Saudi Arabia is a great ally and Israel’s a great ally,” Trump said. “As far as I’m concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line.”
The administration also lifted a ban on selling advanced AI chips to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, boosting Riyadh’s ambitions to become a global tech hub. Gregory Gause of the Middle East Institute compared the potential US-Saudi AI partnership to the development of Saudi oilfields in the 1930s, calling it “a real solid link between the countries”.
Other recent moves suggest a temporary US tilt away from Israeli primacy. On Monday, a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution included language about a possible pathway to an independent Palestine, despite Israeli objections. In June, Trump lifted some sanctions on Syria, again conflicting with Israeli preferences. In May, he toured Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE but skipped Israel.
This marks a shift from the high point of US-Israeli relations in June, when Trump joined Israel in airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Sanam Vakil of Chatham House said Saudi leaders were alarmed at how quickly the conflict threatened to spill across the region.
