As all eyes turn to Riyadh for US President Donald Trump's visit, much has been said about the importance of this visit, which has been carefully prepared to address the challenges facing the region and the world. But how do Americans view this visit?

White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt emphasized the great importance President Trump places on his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, saying, "President Trump seeks to strengthen relations with Middle Eastern countries on his first foreign trip.

Eight years after his first visit, President Trump is once again emphasizing his vision of a prosperous and successful Middle East, where the United States and Middle Eastern countries cooperate to defeat extremism and promote trade.

“This trip highlights how we stand on the cusp of a golden age for America and the Middle East, united by a shared vision of stability, mutual respect, seizing opportunity, and making deals,” Levitt added.

Deals with the Dealmaker

President Trump is accompanied on his visit by senior US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff, and David Sachs, White House chief of staff on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

He is also accompanied by a high-level delegation of CEOs of major American companies, such as Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest investment management firm with assets exceeding $10 billion; Stephen Swartzman, CEO of Blackstone Group, one of the largest private investment management firms with assets valued at $1.2 trillion; Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton; Ruth Porritt, CEO of Alphabet; Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup; Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon; Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; Sam Alterman, CEO of OpenAI; and Kelly Ortberg, CEO of Boeing, in addition to representatives of industrial companies and leaders of the technology and artificial intelligence industries.

President Trump's choice of Saudi Arabia as the destination for his first foreign visit during his first term underscores Riyadh's stature and the strong friendship between President Trump, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

missiles and aircraft

Ambassador Dennis Ross, a senior adviser to the Washington Institute and a leading US negotiator on the Middle East peace process under several Republican and Democratic administrations, says that President Trump views the relationship with the Saudis, Emiratis, and Qataris as extremely important economically and financially for the United States, and that it reflects his priorities more than what could be described as geopolitical concerns. During his first visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017, Trump announced numerous projects worth hundreds of billions, but there was a gap between what was announced and what was ultimately achieved.

The difference with this visit is that there is an intention to conclude deals that will be completed more quickly, because much of the preparatory work was completed during the previous Biden administration, and Trump will be able to complete these deals.

Ross noted that expectations are high for the announcement of defense deals with Gulf states, arms sales, a Qatari purchase of Boeing aircraft, Saudi-American cooperation in artificial intelligence, and cooperation on peaceful nuclear energy programs. He also wants American companies to achieve significant success in the region.

Emile Hokaim, Director of Regional Security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, agreed, noting that Saudi Arabia has reached a high level of geopolitical maturity, with Riyadh becoming a destination for entrepreneurs and industrialists, the UAE a global hub for finance and technology, and Qatar cementing its position as a valuable diplomatic player on important regional issues.

Jon Alterman, senior vice president for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, notes that “deal-making” will be the overarching theme of the visit, which will give President Trump some victories by concluding trade and investment deals in areas such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies. There will also be extensive discussions about the administration’s talks with Iran, how to ensure that Iranian proxies do not return to the region, the future of Syria, how to move toward ending the war in Gaza, and how to push Hamas to relinquish power. The ongoing instability in Libya, Yemen, and Sudan will also be discussed.

Alterman adds that the Gulf partners will put all these strategic issues and challenges on the president's table, and that President Trump will also present his vision for the US competition with China. Alterman expects President Trump to seek quick victories and gains, and to utilize American economic and military power. He explains that there are fears that the failure of negotiations with Iran will open the door to another option: a military confrontation, which would expose the Gulf states to danger and drag the United States into an open war in the Middle East.

Israel and Gaza

The Israeli war on Gaza is expected to dominate much of the Gulf-US discussions. Dennis Ross ruled out any talk of normalization with Israel before the war in Gaza ends and a credible political horizon for the establishment of a Palestinian state is found. He said that the discussion will focus on what the Palestinians must do to reach a position that allows them to establish a viable state without independent militias. This also requires commitments from the Israeli side. Minister Smotrich cannot be allowed to continue making the establishment of a Palestinian state impossible. This will depend on the type of discussions that President Trump will conduct in the region, and on ending the war in Gaza in a practical way that produces a political horizon for the Palestinians.

In recent weeks, a chill has become apparent between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly since Trump's trip to the region did not include a visit to Israel, amid anticipation of a US announcement regarding a deal to release hostages and a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Ambassador Dennis Ross emphasized that Trump will not be able to end the war during his visit, and that he will most likely be able to reach a partial ceasefire agreement and release some hostages to avoid unrest during his visit to the region.

He described this move as a major blow to Israel, because Trump has shown he is willing to act completely independently of the Israelis. No administration has ever spoken directly with Hamas, and the Israelis were surprised by these talks, Trump's announcement of direct negotiations with the Iranians, and the agreement with the Houthis. Trump has shown his support for Israel, but he also adopts positions that indicate he is willing to act in a way that reflects what he believes is important to the United States' interests. It will be difficult for Netanyahu to say no to President Trump.

Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Center for Foreign Relations, believes there will likely be a pause in Israeli military operations in Gaza during the president's visit, pointing to Trump's recent interest in delivering food and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has blocked. He says that while the trip is about Trump's economic policies and making deals, there's no way to avoid geopolitics; therefore, US talks with Iran will be high on the agenda. The situation has changed with Saudi Arabia and the UAE establishing better relations with Iran in recent years, but there are concerns about how the money Iran will receive from sanctions relief if a deal is reached.

Saudi intelligence

James Zogby, director of the Arab American Institute, said it was surprising that Trump would not visit Israel on this trip, but it's difficult to predict what the president is thinking, what he will do today and then reverse tomorrow. He may be trying to send a message to Netanyahu: "You don't make the decisions." But is this position permanent, or will it change in two or three weeks from now?

According to a poll conducted by the Arab Institute, Zogby indicated that President Trump enjoys widespread support among Americans for forcing Israel to surrender and imposing sanctions on it if it does not comply with American demands. This contrasts with the polls conducted under former President Joe Biden, where Democrats opposed Israel's actions, called for a ceasefire, and demanded a reduction in American aid as a means of pressure. Republicans, on the other hand, supported Israel at a nearly 100 percent rate. Now, the tables have turned: a large majority of Democrats remain disturbed by Israel's actions, but now a majority of Republicans say the same. The group leading this trend are evangelicals, who have traditionally taken a steadfast supportive stance toward everything Israel does, especially younger evangelicals.

Zogby emphasized that the Gulf states could have a significant role in influencing President Trump's positions on key issues in the Middle East. He said, "I believe that Saudi officials are playing a smart role in dealing with President Trump, and they are not making any concessions to him. They know that Trump wants trade deals and US arms sales, and he wants to attract direct Gulf investment to the United States. Therefore, Saudi officials were extremely smart in striving to achieve a kind of balance between East and West."

Zogby strongly believes that all regional issues related to Lebanon, Syria, and Iran will be on the table, despite the lack of clarity regarding Trump's strategy toward Syria and the steps he intends to take there. He ruled out the possibility of a military confrontation between the United States and Iran, not only because Trump does not want a war that would exacerbate relations with China and Russia and lead to extremely negative repercussions for oil prices, but also from the perspective of the Gulf states' keenness to maintain stability in the region, and they do not want to see a war negatively impact their development plans.

Iran and its nuclear program

Ross ruled out a nuclear arms race in the region, suggesting that Trump would likely discuss Saudi Arabia's peaceful nuclear program, a large part of which the United States might have a role in managing, as happened with the American assistance provided to develop the Saudi oil industry. He said: "We will have to see how this will relate to the negotiations the Trump administration is conducting with the Iranians." “Because Tehran wants a deal, and President Trump wants to make a deal,” he said, regarding reports of a previously unknown secret nuclear facility. He said that this also happened with the Obama administration in 2009, with the discovery of the Fordow facility. “This could actually affect the negotiations and could increase the sense of urgency to reach an agreement. It will certainly add demands to what is required to verify the peaceful nature of the program, to obtain guarantees of access to monitor all sites, including declared and undeclared military sites, and to ensure that nothing secret is going on. If there is no such access, there will be no agreement. I think this will create greater pressure to realize that something has to be done, to reach a diplomatic outcome, and to be prepared to use force if diplomacy does not succeed.”

Regarding the extent of similarity between what the Trump administration could achieve in the new agreement and the agreement concluded by the Obama administration in 2015, Ross said: “It would be different if Iran stopped enriching uranium, and it would be similar if it insisted on enriching uranium. Perhaps the difference would be the tightening of the sunset clause, meaning that whatever is agreed upon would remain in effect forever, or at least for 25 years. There are other possibilities: Iran would be allowed to enrich, but with a smaller nuclear infrastructure than was permitted in the JCPOA, or they would be allowed to enrich on the condition that they send what they enrich abroad, and the decisive point would be enrichment.”

oil

Regarding oil prices and President Trump's desire to lower them to ease inflationary pressures in the United States, which is against the interests of the Gulf states, Dennis Ross indicated that a compromise could be reached for a short-term increase in oil production, allowing the price to continue to fall. The argument that President Trump could make is that this is necessary not only because of inflation concerns, but also to ensure that a recession does not occur, and such a recession would lead to a reduction in demand, leaving OPEC in a bad position.

Clayton Siegel, a researcher with the Energy Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that oil prices have fallen by about 10 percent, with expectations of a reduction in oil demand. He asserted that President Trump is focused heavily on lowering oil prices, and that increased production by Gulf states would satisfy Trump's ambitions and pave the way for further deals in other areas.

Russian-Ukrainian war

Saudi Arabia played a prominent role in hosting and sponsoring US-Ukrainian and US-Russian talks to find a way to end the war. Despite the US administration's efforts, the situation appears to be significantly complicated, and President Trump has become closer to the Ukrainian position than to the Russian side. Ambassador Ross says that the only thing that will change the equation is for Vladimir Putin to change his behavior. He rejected the idea of a temporary ceasefire, which is an American idea, and he rejected any kind of ceasefire, and he was not prepared to make some concessions. I believe that President Trump realized that if Russia did not make reasonable concessions, it would push him to make a decision to continue supporting Ukraine militarily and to use Russia's $300 billion in assets for reconstruction. I believe that the only thing that could influence Russia's behavior is Putin's perception that the United States has run out of patience with him.