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Donald Trump joins dancers with swords at a welcome ceremony ahead of a banquet at the Murabba Palace, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2017
Visiting three of the richest countries on Earth, Trump will be greeted lavishly by fellow billionaires, who seek only to enrich him, writes John Casey.
Donald Trump’s first major international trip of his second term isn’t to the U.K., France, Germany, Ukraine, or any of America’s long-standing allies or diplomatic partners or a country in need. No, Trump has jetted off to the Middle East, visiting three of the world’s richest nations, where gold-plated thrones, sprawling palaces, and a $400 million luxury private jet gifted by Qatar await him like some 21st-century sultan.
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While America’s working families await the crush of rising prices, a possible recession, job instability, and a shrinking GDP, Trump is literally flying high, wrapped in luxury, flanked by billionaires and trillionaires, and basking in adoration. It’s not diplomacy. It’s a gilded grift.
From the moment he was re-inaugurated, surrounded not by humble public servants but by hedge fund tycoons and tech titans, Trump made it clear that his administration has nothing to do with the backbone of America that is the middle class.
No, Trump is always about money. Getting more money. Always. Every time. The Middle East trip is just the latest golden brick in a road paved with self-interest and crony capitalism that benefits only one person, Donald Trump. And if there’s one thing Trump loves more than power, it's power wrapped in gold leaf (see the Oval Office), adorned with diamonds, and broadcast on state-run television.
Qatar’s over-the-top “gift” of a luxury aircraft to the U.S., which Trump is already treating like his own flying palace, is the perfect metaphor. While Rome is figuratively on fire back home, economically and democratically, Trump is gliding on grift and glitz in Doha. Trump said he’d be “stupid” to turn down Qatar’s offer, as he assumes we are stupid enough to think this is all OK.
Instead of mending frayed alliances or tackling real global threats, he’s strolling the plush red carpets, and getting lavish welcomes in countries where his sons have inked multimillion-dollar business deals in recent months. This isn’t American foreign policy. It’s a family business tour in disguise.
The Trump family’s deepening entanglements in the Middle East should alarm every voter. Newsweek recently detailed the Trump Organization’s expanding interests in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. And lo and behold, Trump is now grinning for photo ops in those very places, pledging “closer cooperation,” not for the sake of democracy or stability but for the optics of money and influence.
It never ends with money gushing toward the Trump family from the Middle East. After leaving his role as a senior White House adviser, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner founded the private equity firm Affinity Partners, which secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
This substantial investment raised ethical concerns (but who cares about that?) given Kushner's previous involvement in U.S.-Saudi relations during the first Trump administration. Reports indicate that the fund's advisory panel had reservations about Affinity Partners' inexperience and potential public relations risks, but these concerns were ultimately overridden by the fund's board, because well, it’s all about access to power.
And where exactly is the United States in all of this? Our allies in Europe, still bruised from Trump’s tariff assaults, slamming NATO, withdrawing from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, and wishy-washy trade agreements, are watching with fresh anxiety. The message to the world is clear, and it’s that Trump doesn’t do allies unless they come bearing gifts, preferably wrapped in gold — what else?
Satellite images show a gleaming new palace being built in Saudi Arabia’s Neom mega-project, the futuristic playground of authoritarian excess. It’s a shining city, if you will, designed for billionaires, exactly the kind of place Trump dreams of ruling, not representing.
While Americans are choosing between dolls and pencils, Trump is choosing between which palaces to visit while he’s romping around an area of the world that oozes excessive wealth.
This trip isn’t a strategic recalibration from the Biden years to the greedy Trump administration. It’s a reflection of Trump’s warped worldview, where wealth equals worth and the struggling masses are only useful as props in campaign rallies.
Trump doesn't believe in and has absolutely no interest in lifting up the working class. He believes in surrounding himself with wealth to project power he doesn’t earn and leadership he doesn’t practice.
Instead, Trump is doubling down on personal relationships with autocrats and oligarchs. Not to promote peace. Not to negotiate climate action or global stability. But to promote and enrich all things Trump.
Meanwhile, back in the States, the promised return of “America First” looks more and more like “Trump First.” While the lower and middle classes bear the brunt of budget cuts and Elon Musk’s chain saw, Trump collects gold jets.
This is what happens when you put a con man in charge of the country. He doesn’t stop the grift; rather, he scales it up.
The American presidency was never meant to be a personal piggy bank or a brand-expansion platform. Yet here we are, watching a president prioritize his bank account over our rising costs at home, his image over that of the U.S., and most glaringly, his glory over our governance.
Trump’s Middle East trip is not just unseemly. It’s un-American. The presidency is not a throne, and yet he continues to behave like a monarch of a fading empire, dragging us deeper into the muck of corruption, self-dealing, and elite worship.
The only gold Trump cares about is the kind that glitters, not the golden rule of leadership that includes compassion, and service.
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