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TRUMP’S NEW BEST FRIEND  
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Robert Kuttner
November 19, 2025
The American Prospect
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_ His one-sided deal with MBS throws Bibi under the bus and gets
nothing for the United States other than more wealth for the Trump
family. _

President Trump laughs with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House, November 18, 2025,
in Washington., Credit: Evan Vucci/AP Photo

 

The Israeli government has played Donald Trump like a violin.
Netanyahu has welcomed Trump’s entirely bogus love for the Jews,
which helps Bibi equate criticism of his own barbarism with
antisemitism. It all worked beautifully—until now.

Never underestimate Trump’s willingness to throw friends under the
bus when that proves expedient. Trump’s latest bromance, with Saudi
Arabia’s crown price and de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman, shifts
the regional balance of power. And there is absolutely nothing
Netanyahu can do about it.

Until this week’s warm reception for MBS at the White House, this
was the state of play: The Gaza cease-fire was holding, but just
barely. And despite a lot of posturing, success in moving from a
cease-fire to the kind of regional settlement that Trump has been
touting was remote if not defunct.

From Bibi’s perspective, the destruction of Iran’s nuclear
capacity, the severe weakening of Iran’s capacity to support
Hezbollah, and the decapitation of Hamas leadership, however grotesque
in terms of violating international law, had shifted the regional
balance of power in Israel’s favor. Gaza was rubble, and the issue
of Palestinian statehood continued to be put off for another day.

But Trump’s courtship of MBS, in Trump’s usual performative and
half-baked manner, intended as a distraction from Trump’s budget and
Epstein woes, portends a different Mideast shift. And despite
Israel’s usual capacity to rile up many American Jews to influence
Washington, in this case Bibi is impotent to alter U.S. policy.
Synagogues may have ubiquitous signs that say, “We stand with
Israel,” but there will be none that read, “Watch out for MBS.”

Even before he had any kind of deal with MBS on recognition of Israel
or anything else, Trump agreed to sell the Saudis F-35 fighter jets.
That’s the kind of concession you make as part of a final deal, not
as a welcome gift.

_The Wall Street Journal_ quotes Bradley Bowman
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of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies: “You can’t give
Saudi Arabia the U.S.’s most advanced fighter and have it not affect
Israel’s qualitative military edge.” The Saudis also have very
close trade and military ties with China, and there are no solid
assurances about what would not be shared with Beijing. A similar
proposed sale of F-35s to the United Arab Emirates was rejected
precisely because of such concerns.

At the White House, Trump touted other parts of a supposed grand
bargain with the Saudis, all of which were politely swatted down by
MBS. No, Saudi Arabia is not ready to have a settlement with Israel,
certainly not unless the Palestinian question is resolved. No, Saudi
Arabia is not about to join the Abraham Accords.

And while Trump claimed that Saudi Arabia will invest as much as a
trillion dollars in U.S. private industry, that’s almost the total
value of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund
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international investments actually declined last year to 17.3 percent
of total fund assets, down from 29 percent in 2021. Most of the fund
is tied up in domestic projects, and the kingdom has a large budget
deficit this year because of the declining price of oil.

The press has played the headline story as Trump excusing MBS for his
role in the assassination of _Washington Post_ columnist Jamal
Khashoggi. But the deeper story is the foreign-policy concessions in
exchange for Trump family grift.

Since Trump’s election a year ago, Dar Global, a Trump Organization
partner with close ties to the Saudi government, has announced at
least four Trump-branded developments
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in Saudi Arabia. And more will come.

“It shifts the power balance in the Middle East,” says a former
leader of AIPAC. “The Saudis become the strongest power in the
region by far, without Trump getting anything in return for the U.S.,
other than more riches for his family.”

_ROBERT KUTTNER is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect,
and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. His latest
book is __Going Big: FDR’s Legacy, Biden’s New Deal, and the
Struggle to Save Democracy_
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* MBS
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* Trump
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* corruption
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* profiteering
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