Readers may remember Trump’s last presidential visit to Saudi Arabia, during which he was entranced by a glowing orb constructed to mark the opening of Saudi’s Global Centre for Combating Extremist Ideology. (A centre to combat the kind of extremist ideology that defines atheism as “terrorism” and bans conversion away from Islam? No, that’s Saudi state policy.)
At the end of the trip, the Saudis presented the orb to the Americans as a gift. But Trump had lost interest in his new toy. The orb sat for a few days in a hallway of the US Embassy in Riyadh until, according to a 2020 book, it was hidden deep in embassy storage. Perhaps it lies there still.
Trump is notorious for his lack of focus. Often, a flashy gift is a quicker way of getting the President to take notice than a policy document.
Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman applaud after the signing of agreements during a meeting in Riyadh this month (Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty)Behind these worries is the nagging concern about whether Trump can actually focus on his brief. The US President is traditionally expected to sit each morning for an intelligence presentation on global threats: a Politico report this week alleged that during Trump’s first 100 days, he has only manage to sit through this daily brief on 12 of those days – a problem worsened by the fact that he never reportedly reads “the book”, his hard-copy briefing.
Leaks like this have previously seen the internet burst forth with amateur ADHD diagnoses, toddler-training tips and marketing plugs for information synthesis systems. (In response to the Washington Post report, the talk-show host Seth Meyers suggested briefing the President by Limerick.)
Trump at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, in Riyadh (Photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters)
By contrast, the few men whom Trump recognises as peers are kings and dictators. Why talk Gaza with one’s staff, when one can talk man to man with the Saudis and feel like a king? This, as much as any relationship, could explain why Trump insists on private meetings with Vladimir Putin, mano-a-mano. (Don’t be surprised if he adds an unscheduled Turkey stop to his trip for another Putin meeting to carve up Ukraine.) And if your chums at the international top table gift you a sword and a few fur coats into the bargain – as the Saudis did in 2017 – so much the better. Even if, alas, the fur coats turned out to be fake.
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This week, news broke of a proposed gift to Trump by the Qatari royal family: a luxury 747 private jet, described as a “palace in the sky”. It comes just as Qatar’s sovereign fund unveils a package of investments in Trump family businesses, including a Trump golf course backed by subsidiary Qatari Diar.
This is the new norm of American foreign policy: diplomacy as a squeeze for cash, where both the President’s family and his voters need to get their cut. The American Founding Fathers were clear-eyed about the need to prevent US officials from being influenced by foreign monarchies: the “Foreign Emoluments Clause” of the US constitution exists to do just that.
The days when US foreign policy reflects its founding values are dead and buried. Long live the foreign policy of shiny gifts.
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