The Grim Spectacle of Trump’s Gaudy Saudi Summit

Oligarchy, artificial intelligence, Saudi money and social media content creators—the dominant forces in the U.S. economy—came together in spectacular fashion this week. Saudi leaders and financiers took center stage at a lavish White House party and a star-studded US-Saudi business summit that ended with President Donald Trump calling Saudi Arabia a “major non-NATO ally” worthy of F-35 combat jets and other benefits. The multi-day event was an unashamed series of flamboyant spectacles, paid celebrity cameos and apologies for killings – all to further elevate America's favorite dictator, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS).

For 80 years, the US-Saudi alliance has survived on a bipartisan disregard for democracy and human rights. This is the most transactional of relationships – providing a rigid monarchy with protection from both its own citizens and regional competitors in exchange for oil. So it's no surprise that Trump, the most transactional of presidents, has embraced the murderous autocrat as a close ally. He did the same thing in his first administration—and that was before the Saudi government gave Jared Kushner $2 billion to invest on his behalf, among many other favors provided to the Trump family and inner circle of supporters. What seems different this time (as with many other abuses of power and corrupt practices during Trump's second term) is the crass nature of the MAGA-Saudi Arabia connections, as evidenced by the Trump administration's willingness to essentially glorify murder and bribery.

On Tuesday, during an appearance with MBS in the newly decorated, gold-plated Oval Office, Trump was asked about his former Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Turkey by a Saudi government militant squad widely believed to be led by MBS. As MBS looked serenely at the ground, Trump immediately rushed to his defense. “He did a phenomenal job.” Trump said about the monarch sitting next to him. “You mention a man who was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like the gentleman you're talking about. Whether you like him or not, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't need to embarrass our guest.”

“Stuff happens” is Trump’s signature amoral justification for barbarism. Paul Graham notedMafia, we say. Sometimes hired thugs pick off the wrong guy. You move on. After all, there is money to be made—trillions, if you believe the fantastic promises being made around the District of Columbia this week.

That evening, at a lavish White House dinner, Trump hosted an evening of entertainment for MBS and numerous prominent tech and finance figures, including Elon Musk, former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO and current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, venture capitalist turned artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar David Sachs, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Skydance mogul David Ellison. This latest contender for the Saudis' favor is reportedly hoping to attract the sovereign wealth funds of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to acquire Warner Brothers for its growing MAGA-linked media empire. Soccer great Christian Ronaldo, whose stunning compensation package from the Saudi football club includes an annual salary of $200 million, was there and posted a group selfie that captured the rancid brilliance of it all.

Here's how Wall Street Journal described scene: “The president's favorite tenor, Christopher Macchio, serenaded businessmen. The band played “Ave Maria” and “Let it Be” by the Beatles, according to a member and another person familiar with the matter. Guests dined on honey butternut squash soup, pistachio-crusted lamb and pear-chocolate mousse – served on gold-rimmed plates.”

It is as if the protagonists of the AI ​​bubble had gathered in one place to pay homage to the fundamental generative forces of this speculative mania. The two most important players present at the event were Nvidia, whose coveted chips have made it the world's most valuable company and whose CEO Jensen Huang has emerged as a quasi-statesman; and the Saudi Arabian government, whose endless flow of investment capital keeps the bubble afloat. Plenty of other supporting players were there with their hands outstretched, and after the event, the Trump administration approved the export of tens of thousands of Nvidia chips to Saudi Arabian and Emirati state-owned companies.

The AI ​​bubble has come to be characterized by a series of interconnected, cyclical, highly leveraged financial relationships that may make you wonder if there's really enough money out there to support all this data center construction and industry hype. Judging by the current revenues of artificial intelligence companies, they are far from enough. But as long as the Saudi Arabian government and other Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds are willing to continue subsidizing this fool's gold rush, the bubble will continue to grow.

Following the gala, the White House hosted an economic summit between the United States and Saudi Arabia, at which representatives of the two countries' political and economic elites took turns praising each other's greatness and promising to continue funding investment megaprojects. The most corrupt president in US history presides over a shaky, debt-ridden economy barely kept afloat by unjustified capital expenditures on resource-guzzling artificial intelligence data centers. Meanwhile, MBS, working under the guise of economic modernization and political reform, is cracking down even harder on a population already denied basic civil rights, while spending hundreds of billions of dollars on unviable construction projects.

During his roughly ten years in power, MBS funneled incredible amounts of money into the United States, helping fuel an artificial intelligence boom while acquiring assets—and influence—in technology, sports, media, military manufacturing and other key sectors. He is now promise 1 trillion dollars in US investments; six months ago, when Trump visited Riyadh, the figure was $600 billion. These promises are reminiscent of meta-prince Mark Zuckerberg being caught on a hot mic during a White House dinner asking Trump what number he wanted to hear; the amounts thrown around are practically fictitious, concocted to suit the circumstances.

The authoritarian rulers of both the United States and Saudi Arabia clearly enjoyed the media-friendly spectacle of distracting their home constituencies from the dire conditions they face. But when the spectacle is a parade of tuxedoed ruling class members now leading the American economy toward collapse, it is a sobering study in the return of the repressed. The president's open defense of the dismemberment of a journalist should be a highlight of this dark and embarrassing week of theatrics. Devoted MAGA followers can justify anything—including Trump's apparently close friendship with a pedophile and human trafficker—but we can still hope that most Americans don't approve of our psychopath-in-chief's scary mantra that “stuff happens.”