Donald Trump's journey to the Middle East is very successful, and the president's political opponents will be well acknowledged the facts and understand what's the reason.
Trump has made it unabashedly to use the private sector of the United States as a tool of state power. In fact, he did better than any previous president in my life. As Calvin Coolidge said in 1925, "The main business of the American people is business. They are very concerned about production, trading, selling, investing and thriving in the world." The observation remains true and Trump is not afraid to embody it.
To be sure, the president's trade war has confused business leaders, angered free-market traders and raised concerns about capital flight, but at least for the time being, investors are still eager to put their funds into U.S. technology and infrastructure, and there are few deployable capital pools than Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Qatar and Arab United Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab Arab So Trump brought the captain of the American industrial to his meeting. In doing so, Trump positioned the United States as something different from the past, not just a weapon merchant, or, worse, a scolding of human rights, but a business and strategic partner of the country for countries desperately trying to diversify and develop their economies in preparation for the post-economic economy. In exchange, what do Americans get? Well, maybe not the “trillions of dollars” that Trump promised, but certainly hundreds of billions of dollars in new investment to help grow American businesses, create new jobs and enrich Americans.
Meanwhile, Trump has shown that he is willing to drive Middle Eastern politics in a way that is greatly influenced by family attention. This allowed him to act—some were ridiculous, but some were very clever—there were no other presidents to get rid of. Even the president-hating Democrats may feel forgiven for bullying and humiliating President Joe Biden’s Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who can taste his medicine.
Over the past few weeks, Trump has announced a ceasefire with Houthis, even as radicals continue to attack Israel. Israelis negotiated the last American hostage to return to Gaza. It was pleasantly announced that he was eager to negotiate with Iran, which almost certainly looked a lot like the deal President Barack Obama had negotiated in 2015; and not only did all the sanctions be imposed on Syria, but also met with the new Syrian president, who could not be popular with some members of the Trump cabinet (I'm looking at you, Talsi Gabbard).
I happen to think that all of these decisions (except possibly other than the suspicious agreement with Husses) are correct. I also suspect that neither Biden nor his successor Kamala Harris will do either. I spoke privately with members of the Biden team who knew it was the right thing to impose sanctions on Syria, but were worried that it would be politically difficult.
Trump probably knows that as the next generation of the Democratic Party may divide Israel, his supporters of Jewish and evangelical Christianity have nowhere to go. This puts him in power relative to the Israeli Prime Minister, which must make Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders very uncomfortable. The fact that makes them even more uncomfortable is that every important person seems to have attended those meetings in the Bay. Everyone, that is, except them.
Finally, domestic politics may still be important. Trump may still no For example, luxury planes in Qatar are allowed to be accepted. But Trump once again shows that his rules are different from those of nearly all of his predecessors.
But Trump has another reason not to worry about domestic politics: by temperament, he and his foreign policy team largely see the region as the view of many Americans. Trump assured the Middle East directly in his conversation with Arabs in the Arab Gulf that there will be no more national construction projects and no more “lectures on how to live”. This message is as popular in the Middle East as it is in Central America, where many people are tired of U.S. military entanglement in foreign conflicts.
In order to achieve the success of the first Middle East Tour, Trump will need to remember three things. First, the interests of the United States are not limited to business, but he may need to balance his desire to invest in other priorities. The second is optical inadequacy – his team needs to follow all the deals and negotiations it announced. The third is that global investors can only work if the United States can still invest.
Historically, the United States has attracted capital because it can count on abiding by the rule of law, combating public corruption, and supporting various independent and quasi-dependent regulators to reassure investors. Trump and his administration have been working to undercut all of this. For a president who claims to understand the private sector and what he does, seeking a deal while undermining the conditions that make the United States a huge investment will ultimately backfire.