Jets, chips and a clean slate: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince got almost everything he wanted from Trump

Just three years ago, the US was openly reconsidering its relationship with Saudi Arabia. President Joe Biden had vowed to make Mohammed bin Salman a pariah. Even arms sales to one of America’s closest military partners were put under review.

This week, the crown prince and de facto Saudi leader walked into the Oval Office to find a different world – one where President Donald Trump defended him so forcefully that he scolded a reporter for “embarrassing our guest” when she pressed him on the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Beyond the Oval Office theatrics, the substance of the administration’s announcements tells the real story of bin Salman’s remarkable rehabilitation in Washington. It also highlights Trump’s willingness to move past the Khashoggi episode and deepen relations with a kingdom that has pledged nearly a trillion dollars in US investments and maintains business ties with his own family. The visit also underscores the crown prince’s growing clout and his ability to skillfully navigate great power rivalries to his advantage.

Perhaps his biggest win was persuading Trump to drop the one condition Washington had long insisted on before sealing major defense and trade deals with Riyadh: Full normalization with Israel.

The shift marks another reversal from just a year ago, when the Biden administration insisted that any comprehensive US-Saudi deal could only move forward if all three of its components – bilateral defense and trade agreements, Saudi normalization with Israel, and an Israeli commitment to a pathway to a Palestinian state – advanced together. But with Israel rejecting the prospect of a Palestinian state and Saudi Arabia refusing to soften its position, the framework stalled.

Now, the Trump administration appears to have decoupled those components, handing Riyadh most of what it has long sought on defense, economics and regional security.

In a nod to Riyadh’s singular focus to rewire its economy away from oil dependence, the two countries launched an AI cooperation framework which includes clearing of the sale of advanced chips to the kingdom, signed a critical minerals agreement, and opened the door to expand cooperation on nuclear energy.

Trump also delivered on bin Salman’s regional requests as the crown prince tries to reshape the Middle East’s security landscape, agreeing to help end the civil war in Sudan

In the Oval Office, bin Salman framed the new agreements as delivering benefits for both the US and Saudi Arabia.

“Today is a very important time in our history,” bin Salman said in the Oval Office on Tuesday, seated beside Trump.