Middle East: Trump's search for the glittering ATM

The presenter greets "Donald J. Trump, the 45th and 47th US President," six times on stage in the Saudi Arabian capital. That's how much time she needs. The man who received such a thorough welcome can be seen on the monitors behind her, moving toward the large hall and the waiting audience.

On Tuesday evening, the cameras show a somewhat sullen-looking Trump with slumped shoulders being led through a small exhibition by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , known as MbS. It deals with the 80 years of close relations between the United States and the kingdom. Pictures hang on the wall showing the successive US presidents with the then-incumbent Saudi rulers. In 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt gave King Abdul Aziz one of his two wheelchairs; neither of them could walk properly anymore. The exhibition features a wooden desk that Harry S. Truman brought to the king in 1950. Trump stops and looks at the table with interest. As if to say: Look, look, that's how it used to be.

As a foreign correspondent for ARD, Sophie von der Tann reports on the crisis in the Middle East and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. An interview about journalistic independence, stress resilience in times of war, and her daily life in Tel Aviv.

What the situation is today becomes clear a few minutes later, when Trump takes the stage and the number "300 billion US dollars" flashes up on the screens. That's the total value of the "deals" that are supposed to be concluded during Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia .

In the past, US presidents brought small gifts like a desk or a wheelchair. Trump, apart from his presence, hasn't brought any gifts. He came to secure deals and sell them to the people at home as a huge success.

It's difficult to say exactly how the sum of $300 billion, which the White House later even estimated at $600 billion, is comprised. The fact that it's slightly larger than the annual Saudi budget already suggests that there are doubts about what kind of contracts, preliminary agreements, and "let's see" details have been bundled together. This includes a $142 billion arms deal, the exact content of which remains unclear. Various technology agreements, and finally, an agreement between the Saudi government and the National Zoo in Washington to "conserve the endangered Arabian leopard through the establishment of a special exhibit."

The moderator now invites "Donald J. Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the United States," to the podium once again for his acceptance speech. The extensive listing of all titles and names is customary at receptions for dignitaries, in the small and large world, and in the Arab world in particular. The fact that two presidents have now been greeted a dozen times reminds those present in Riyadh that they are facing a different Trump than eight years ago, when his first foreign trip also took him to Riyadh: He is more radical today, more vindictive, and more ruthless. Allies and friendships no longer matter; what matters is what can be measured: deals and agreements.

The Crown Prince, in fact, has undergone the opposite development. Eight years ago, he was a hothead, to put it mildly, who escalated the war in Yemen, and under his rule, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and sawed into pieces in the consulate in Istanbul. That was the time when the Crown Prince held hundreds of Saudi princes hostage in a luxury hotel until they signed over large portions of their fortunes to him. It's the same hotel where Trump is now staying. It could easily be a Trump Tower, with its columns and golden faucets.

What Trump naturally likes, as well as everything he sees in Saudi Arabia, he tells his guests in his nearly hour-long speech, which, as always, touches on a variety of topics and ultimately revolves primarily around himself. But Trump is right in his remarks: that the world may not yet have fully grasped how much Saudi Arabia has changed in the past eight years. Trump talks primarily about the many new skyscrapers. But outside in the foyer, the government has also projected the many changes onto video screens.

About 33 percent of jobs are held by women, and only 55 percent of government revenue comes from oil. Women are allowed to drive and are no longer required to wear veils. And Guns N' Roses will be visiting soon. Trump says: Change will come from the people themselves, the Arab way. And not from the "nation-builders in the West" who tell others how to live. He means, of course, the Democrats at home and Republicans like George W. Bush.

He's getting the biggest applause here. Perhaps Trump himself hasn't yet fully grasped how much Saudi Arabia has changed. To him, it still seems like a kind of glittering ATM that the world can use. For the Saudis, it's a familiar dilemma: Trump has brought half of the American financial and tech elite with him, from Elon Musk to Blackstone founder Stephen A. Schwarzman. People who come here to snag a slice of the fabulous wealth of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund (PIF), the largest in the world, filled with nearly a trillion dollars.

The Saudis have indeed been throwing this money at the world for a long time; in the past three years, a total of 500 billion US dollars flowed into Europe alone. For football clubs and investments in airports. For all sorts of things, one sometimes had the feeling. Those days are over; the Saudis want their country to be invested in, which isn't happening to a sufficient extent yet. The days of the glittering ATM are over.

MbS, too, apparently realized that social reforms were perhaps the easier ones because the country was thirsting for change and openness. A lot has happened economically, but about 50 percent of men still work for the government, often in bloated administrations that tend to hinder change. Women are allowed to drive, but the planned electric car factory is making slow progress. And even after Trump's visit, many Saudis may wonder what kind of deals they actually got out of it, apart from Trump's many expressions of friendship.

He, too, feels that change isn't happening fast enough, but rather political change. Eight years ago, Trump promised a new Middle East; he began concluding the so-called Abraham Accords, normalization agreements between Arab states like Morocco and the Emirates on the one hand, and Israel on the other. Saudi Arabia was supposed to be next.

Then came the Hamas terror on October 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza, which continues to this day. Normalization is out of the question for Saudi Arabia after some 54,000 Palestinian deaths, the Crown Prince recently made clear again. The agreement is still his "dream," Trump says. But the Saudis have to do it at their own pace. There is silence in the audience. Some may have hoped Trump would come up with a proposal for ending the deaths in Gaza. Or even a plan for the region and its crises. But he doesn't. The only thing he has with him is the announcement that he will lift sanctions on Syria, which delights the audience like nothing else that evening. Trump says the Crown Prince, in particular, persuaded him to do so.

Ultimately, it may have been just a deal. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa had been requesting a meeting with Trump for weeks to convince him to lift the sanctions. Long without success, on Monday Sharaa finally offered the US president a minerals deal and a Trump Tower in Damascus. Just like the one Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and Qatar have or are building, the stops on this first trip. Shortly thereafter, the sanctions were lifted. A new deal for Trump.