With Trump, Saudi Arabia Is Getting Everything It Wants

The red carpet was rolled out for Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as Donald Trump hosted the Saudi delegation in Washington for a lavish visit on Tuesday. This was the Crown Prince’s first visit to the White House since Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in October of 2018.

In a defence of the Kingdom, Trump was adamant that the Crown Prince knew nothing about Khashoggi’s murder. Trump also brushed away criticisms of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, and referred to the Crown Prince as “a great ally.”

This is a remarkable turnaround since US intelligence indicated in 2021 that the Crown Prince had approved Khashoggi’s murder. In the aftermath, the relationship between the West and Saudi Arabia became increasingly strained. Saudi Arabia faced not just critiques from US Congress, but 36 countries (including all EU countries) provided a joint rebuke of its human rights record— several months after the murder in March of 2019.

The following month, US Congress voted to end US military assistance to Saudi Arabia over Riyadh’s conduct in the war in Yemen after it was accused of carrying out unlawful airstrikes on civilians. Though Trump would veto this measure to block the sale of millions of dollars in weapons to Saudi Arabia, tensions grew even further during Biden’s presidency. Refusing to fully condemn Moscow, Saudi Arabia refrained from joining in on sanctioning Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Riyadh also rebuffed US requests to increase energy production to depress petroleum prices to undercut Russian oil sales.

Fast forward to 2025 and all is forgotten. At the black-tie dinner hosted at the White House, Trump announced that Saudi Arabia will be elevated to a “major non-NATO ally” allowing it to have quicker access to advanced US weapons systems without having to go through the same licensing protocols that other buyers would face.

In another coup for Saudi Arabia, Trump announced that the US will also sell 48 F-35 stealth jets and nearly 300 Abrams tanks. The sale of F-35s constitutes the first delivery of advanced fighter jets to a Middle Eastern state apart from Israel.

The F-35s have long been coveted by Riyadh as the jets are considered to be the most advanced in the world. F-35s are designed to avoid detection with sensors to gather information on its surroundings but also with strike capabilities to attack another fighter jet before it has even launched.

A deal mired in controversy

While Saudi-US relations appear to be stronger than ever, Israel is concerned that the Kingdom is receiving these jets without one of Trump’s main conditions—Saudi-Israeli normalization.

This sticking point was critical to Trump’s negotiations with the United Arab Emirates during his first term. Trump had initially agreed to sell fifty F-35s to Abu Dhabi, but this deal fell through due to US concerns that the UAE was becoming too close to China, making use of Huawei 5G technology.

And yet even though the F-35 deal collapsed, the UAE became the first Arab country in 26 years to normalize relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords. As Saudi Arabia has accused Israel of genocide and has clarified that a two-state solution is paramount to normalization with Israel, the prospects of expanding the Abraham Accords seem dim.

Israel’s other issue is that it will no longer have its qualitative military edge over other countries in the region, something that the US is required to maintain by law since 2008. Axios reported that an Israeli official voiced his concern that “it takes minutes for an F-35 to fly from Saudi Arabia to Israel.”

Another complication is that as Saudi Arabia and China have forged closer economic ties, critics of this deal fear that the Chinese could gain access to the aircraft’s technology.

Some countries have been banned from purchasing F-35s from the US, and Washington has restricted the aircraft from operating near advanced Russian or Chinese air defence systems as they could collect sensitive intel.

Though China has produced its own J-31 fighter jet that is comparable to the F-35 (which Beijing has still not acquired), the J-31 is reportedly easier to detect in the air making it a somewhat inferior product.

Why the Saudis want the F-35s

Does Saudi Arabia really need this type of aircraft in its arsenal? Military experts have noted that Saudi Arabia has mostly focused on the glitter factor of buying advanced weapons systems. Accordingly, image is more important than actual effectiveness, especially cost-effectiveness.

Flying an F-35 for just one-hour costs about $34,000 and upkeep is another issue. Because the paint coating these jets is designed to evade radar detection, this requires significant maintenance costs.

Saudi Arabia does not really need F-35s for specific or imminent threats, as it already has over 210 F-15s that it has used to bomb the Houthis in Yemen. Acquiring this type of military hardware is more about achieving the appearance of air superiority in the regional arms race, and to provide a deterrent against Iran. While relations with Tehran are currently on more solid footing, both countries will always regard each other as threats to their security.

With concerns that regional instability may undermine the realization of Saudi’s Vision 2030, this latest deal helps Saudi Arabia project an image of strength both in the region and globally. The sale also represents a much longer term commitment between the US and the Kingdom for greater cooperation in the future. With Trump’s support, Saudi Arabia is not only seeking to emerge as the undisputed regional superpower but to rehabilitate its image and maximize its global influence.