Trump’s first foreign call was with ‘fantastic guy’ Prince Mohammed bin Salman about $600 billion deal
Trump hailed the crown prince American intelligence accused of ordering the assassination of a Washington Post journalist, and said he’s going to press Saudia Arabia to invest $1 trillion in the U.S.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week about a multi-billion-dollar investment in the United States – which Trump boasted on Thursday he believes he could push to “$1 trillion.”
In his first foreign phone call as president on Wednesday Trump said he and the crown prince spoke about Saudi Arabia investing $600 billion in the U.S. — though they did not clarify what those investments would be.
One day later, at the World Economic Forum, Trump called the crown prince “a fantastic guy” and said he plans to ask Saudi Arabia to “round out” its investment to $1 trillion.
“I’ll be asking the crown prince, who is a fantastic guy, to round it out to around one trillion and I think they’ll do it because we’ve been good to them,” Trump said while appearing virtually at the forum.
The president said he would also ask Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to bring down the price of oil.
“You got to bring it down, which, frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t do before the election,” he said. “That didn’t show a lot of love by them not doing it. I was a little surprised by that.”
Later, at an executive order signing, Trump told reporters he would “probably” travel to Saudi Arabia if it agreed to buy $450 billion or $500 billion worth of U.S. products. The country was the first Trump traveled to during his first term in the White House.
He again reiterated that he would urge the crown prince to increase his investment in the U.S.
Trump has maintained close ties to Saudi Arabia even after U.S. intelligence concluded bin Salmon ordered the assassination and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
At the time, the president defended the Saudi government and rejected U.S. intelligence findings saying, “We may never know all the facts surrounding the murder.”
Following the call between Trump and Prince Mohammed, the Saudi government released a readout echoing the kingdom’s intention to “broaden its investment and trade with the United States over the next four years in the amount of $600 billion and potentially beyond that.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
0Comments