Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ben Freeman
“Next week President Trump will take his first international state trip as president and, just as in his first term, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be his first stop. Trump hasn’t minced words about why he’s heading there: money. ‘I said I’ll go if you pay $1 trillion to American companies — meaning the purchase over a four-year period of $1 trillion — and they’ve agreed to do that,’ Trump told reporters on March 7 …. there’s reason to be skeptical of the amount given Trump’s penchant for exaggeration and the fact that $1 trillion is more than the value of the entire Saudi sovereign wealth fund. While it’s unclear how much money is actually at stake and who will get it, there’s one person that is certain to cash in on Saudi Arabia’s financial largesse: Donald Trump.” (05/06/25)