05/15/2025
Persian Gulf countries like the UAE and Qatar don't gift planes to a US president or buy his worthless crypto coins for nothing. So what are they getting for their investment? Here are a few immediate examples.
One - Trump is lifting a ban on exports of advanced chips to the Saudi & UAE AI industry. The ban aimed to keep this technology from leaking to China, and ensure that democracies, not mass surveillance dictatorships, lead global development of AI.
Two - Trump just decided to blow past Congressional objections and approve a helicopter and fighter jet maintenance deal with the UAE. Members of Congress had held the deal up because of the UAE's support for militias committing mass murder in Sudan.
Three - Trump announced that the United States would no longer care if foreign leaders, like Saudi Arabia's MBS, commit gruesome human rights abuses like the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. That will be music to the ears of all the region's dictators.
To be fair, the Saudis and Qataris did lobby Trump to do a good thing - lift sanctions on the new Syrian government. Yet Trump framed even this gesture as a favor to his patrons ("The things I do for the crown prince") rather than in the US interest.
--Tom Malinowski
