When President Donald Trump first met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in Riyadh this spring, he was beaming with delight. Trump was feted by the Saudi royal family as if he were a royal himself. Surrounded by gold chairs and chandeliers, Trump threw praise at MBS, a man who seven years earlier was accused by the U.S. intelligence community of ordering the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident and columnist at The Washington Post. MBS, Trump said, was an “incredible man,” a “friend” and someone who was willing to spend lavishly to boost U.S. industry. And spend he did; the Saudis agreed to invest $600 billion in the American economy.
Trump and MBS will meet each other again Tuesday, this time at the White House. It will be the crown prince’s first trip to Washington since the Khashoggi affair. The Trump administration is packaging this meeting as a sort of follow-up to the May session, where investment projects will be hammered out and the Middle East’s biggest security topics—maintaining the ceasefire in Gaza, broadening the Abraham Accords and containing Iran’s nuclear program—will be discussed. Expect the usual red-carpet treatment that a visiting dignitary typically receives when they enter the White House complex.
Yet if Trump isn’t careful, he could run the risk of giving more to his Saudi friend than is warranted. MBS is coming to Washington with the geopolitical equivalent of a long Christmas list, and the list includes everything from state-of-the-art F-35 fighter planes to a full-fledged U.S. security guarantee, which would compel the United States to defend Saudi Arabia in the event the Kingdom’s security is jeopardized. While some of these demands may already be in the works, Trump ought to ask himself the obvious question: Are concessions like these appropriate or even necessary to accomplish U.S. security objectives in the Middle East?
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