Politics
MBS visit sees landmark US-Saudi F-35, nuclear energy agreements
- Crown prince raises Saudi investment in US to nearly $1 trillion.
- White House welcomes MBS with soldiers on horseback, F-35 flypast.
- President Trump praises crown prince’s “incredible” human rights record.
The United States and Saudi Arabia signed agreements on civil nuclear energy and the sale of cutting-edge US F-35 warplanes during a visit Tuesday by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the White House said.
The two countries ratified a “joint declaration” on civil nuclear energy that “builds the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar nuclear energy partnership” in line with “strong nonproliferation standards,” the White House said in a statement.
In addition, President Donald Trump approved a “major defence sale package,” which includes future deliveries of F-35 advanced American fighter jets.
Earlier, Trump hailed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman $1 trillion investment pledge as the US president laid on a lavish welcome at the White House.
Trump moved to consolidate his growing bromance with the Saudi leader, who is at the Oval Office for the first time in seven years, giving him a parade of soldiers on horseback and a military flypast featuring F-35 jets that he said Washington would soon sell to Riyadh.
Trump opened their White House meeting with praise for the prince’s “incredible” human rights record.
The heir to the throne then delighted Trump by announcing that he was increasing the $600 billion Saudi investment he promised Trump when the US president visited the country in May.
“We can announce that we are going to increase that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion for investment,” Prince Mohammed said in the Oval Office.
A grinning Trump asked him to confirm the figure, to which the Saudi royal replied: “Definitely.”
Rose Garden tour
Trump pulled out all the stops for the Saudi prince, giving him treatment normally reserved for a state visit to the White House, even though he is not a head of state.
He welcomed bin Salman — who is widely known as MBS — on the South Lawn of the White House as cannon fire boomed out, before they watched the noisy flypast by US military jets.
The 79-year-old Republican then showed the prince a new gallery of presidential portraits by the Rose Garden — including one portraying his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden as an autopen.
Trump has accused an ageing Biden of using the automated device to sign presidential pardons, and questioned their legality.
Later in the day, First Lady Melania Trump will hold a gala dinner.
Portugal soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays in Saudi Arabia, will also be at the White House for the gala day of events, a White House official told AFP.
The president has made a priority of boosting ties with the oil-rich Gulf kingdom, particularly as he seeks to turn the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza into a longer-lasting regional peace.
Trump said he had pushed the prince to normalise relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords that he launched in his first term.
Prince Mohammed said he was working to do so “as soon as possible,” but insisted on securing a “clear path of two-state solution” for a Palestinian state first.
This is a developing story and is being updated with details.
- Republican feud over Epstein files ends in near-unanimous votes.
- Epstein’s accusers applaud lawmakers from House public gallery.
- Trump expected to receive bill as early as Wednesday.
WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled US Congress voted almost unanimously on Tuesday to force the release of Justice Department files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an outcome President Donald Trump had fought for months before ending his opposition.
Two days after Trump’s abrupt about-face, the House of Representatives passed the measure with a vote of 427-1, sending a resolution requiring the release of all unclassified records on Epstein to the Republican-majority Senate, which swiftly approved it. The bill could now go to Trump for his signature as soon as Wednesday.
Trump plans to sign the bill when it reaches his desk, a senior White House official said.
The Epstein scandal has been a political thorn in Trump’s side for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters. Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
Epstein was a New York financier who fraternised with some of the most powerful men in the country.
Victims called for passage
Before the House vote, about two dozen survivors of Epstein’s alleged abuse joined a trio of Democratic and Republican lawmakers outside the US Capitol to urge the release of the records. The women held photographs of their younger selves, the age at which they said they first encountered Epstein.
After the vote, they stood to applaud lawmakers from the House’s public gallery, some of them crying and hugging each other.
Despite his changed position on the bill, Trump remains angry about the attention paid to the Epstein matter. On Tuesday, he called a reporter who asked about it in the Oval Office a “terrible person” and said the television network the journalist works for should have its licence revoked.
“I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” the Republican president told reporters while hosting a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert.”
White House caught off guard
The White House was caught off guard by how quickly the measure passed through Congress, having expected it to take longer in the Senate, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The fight over the Epstein papers has taken a toll on Trump’s public approval, which fell to its lowest point this year in a Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Monday, which found that just one in five voters overall approved of his handling of the matter. Among Republicans, just 44% thought Trump was handling the situation well.
Trump socialised and partied with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s before what he calls a rift, but the old friendship has become a rare weak spot for the president with his supporters.
“Please stop making this political, it is not about you, President Trump,” Jena-Lisa Jones, who said Epstein sexually abused her when she was 14, told a press conference outside the Capitol a few hours before the vote. “I voted for you, but your behaviour on this issue has been a national embarrassment.”
Trump has said he had no connection to Epstein’s crimes and has begun calling the issue a “Democratic hoax,” even as some Republicans were among the loudest voices calling for the release of the records from criminal investigations of Epstein.
Representative Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who led the effort to force the vote, accused the Justice Department from the House floor of “protecting pedophiles and sex traffickers.”
“How will we know if this bill has been successful?” he said before the vote. “We will know when there are men, rich men, in handcuffs, being perp-walked to the jail. And until then, this is still a cover-up.”
Greene says she was pressured to withdraw support
Trump’s opposition soured relations with one of his strongest Republican supporters in Congress, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, who has expressed anger at the Justice Department’s not releasing more details on Epstein. She said Trump pressured her to withdraw her support for the resolution and publicly called her a traitor after she doubled down.
She joined Massie and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna at the Capitol before voting in favour of the resolution, telling reporters: “A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America, and Americans like the women standing behind me.”
Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge in 2008 and served 13 months in jail. The US Justice Department charged him with sex trafficking of minors in 2019. Epstein had pleaded not guilty to those charges before his death.
Politics
In meeting with Trump at White House, MBS says Saudi to boost US investments to $1 trillion
- MBS makes first visit to White House in more than seven years.
- Trump expects to build on a $600 billion Saudi investment pledge.
- Saudi priorities include defense, technology, nuclear power.
Saudi Arabia will invest up to $1 trillion in the United States, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told US President Donald Trump during their meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
“I believe, Mr President, in today and tomorrow, we can announce that we are going to increase that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion for investment, real investment, and real opportunity,” the prince said as he appeared with Trump in front of reporters at the Oval Office.
“Now, you’re saying to me now that the $600 billion will be $1 trillion?” Trump said, to which the Saudi royal replied: “Definitely.”
Earlier, Trump had welcomed Crown Prince to the White House, making his first White House visit in more than seven years.
He was greeted with a lavish display of pomp and ceremony presided over by Trump on the South Lawn.
Talks between the two leaders are expected to advance security ties, civil nuclear cooperation, and multibillion-dollar business deals with the kingdom. But there will likely be no major breakthrough on Saudi Arabia normalising ties with Israel, despite pressure from Trump for such a landmark move.
The meeting underscores a key relationship — between the world’s biggest economy and the top oil exporter — that Trump has made a high priority in his second term.
The warm welcome for bin Salman in Washington is the latest sign that relations have recovered from the deep strain.
During a day of White House diplomacy, bin Salman will hold talks with Trump in the Oval Office, have lunch in the Cabinet Room and attend a formal black-tie dinner in the evening, giving it many of the trappings of a state visit. US and Saudi flags festooned lamp posts in front of the White House.
Trump expects to build on a $600 billion Saudi investment pledge made during his visit to the kingdom in May, which will include the announcement of dozens of targeted projects, a senior US administration official said.
The US and Saudi Arabia were ready to strike deals on Tuesday for defence sales, enhanced cooperation on civil nuclear energy and a multibillion-dollar investment in US artificial intelligence infrastructure, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Trump told reporters on Monday, “We’ll be selling” F-35s to Saudi, which has requested to buy 48 of the advanced aircraft.
This would be the first US sale of the fighter jets to Saudi Arabia and mark a significant policy shift. The deal could alter the military balance in the Middle East and test Washington’s definition of maintaining what the US has termed Israel’s “qualitative military edge.” Until now, Israel has been the only country in the Middle East to have the F-35.
Beyond military equipment, the Saudi leader is seeking new security guarantees. Most experts expect Trump to issue an executive order creating the kind of defence pact he recently gave to Qatar, but still short of the congressionally ratified NATO-style treaty the Saudis initially sought.
Politics
In meeting with Trump at White House, MBS says Saudi to boost US investments to $1 trillion
- MBS makes first visit to White House in more than seven years.
- Trump moves to consolidate growing bromance with Saudi leader.
- Saudi priorities include defense, technology, nuclear power.
Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman $1 trillion investment pledge as the US president laid on a lavish welcome at the White House.
Trump moved to consolidate his growing bromance with the Saudi leader, who is at the Oval Office for the first time in seven years, giving him a parade of soldiers on horseback and a military flypast featuring F-35 jets that he said Washington would soon sell to Riyadh.
Trump opened their White House meeting with praise for the prince’s “incredible” human rights record.
The heir to the throne then delighted Trump by announcing that he was increasing the $600 billion Saudi investment he promised Trump when the US president visited the country in May.
“We can announce that we are going to increase that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion for investment,” Prince Mohammed said in the Oval Office.
A grinning Trump asked him to confirm the figure, to which the Saudi royal replied: “Definitely.”
Rose Garden tour
Trump pulled out all the stops for the Saudi prince, giving him treatment normally reserved for a state visit to the White House, despite the fact that he is not a head of state.
He welcomed bin Salman — who is widely known as MBS — on the South Lawn of the White House as cannon fire boomed out, before they watched the noisy flypast by US military jets.
The 79-year-old Republican then showed the prince a new gallery of presidential portraits by the Rose Garden — including one portraying his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden as an autopen.
Trump has accused an ageing Biden of using the automated device to sign presidential pardons, and questioned their legality.
Later in the day, First Lady Melania Trump will hold a gala dinner.
Portugal soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays in Saudi Arabia, will also be at the White House for the gala day of events, a White House official told AFP.
The president has made a priority of boosting ties with the oil-rich Gulf kingdom, particularly as he seeks to turn the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza into a longer-lasting regional peace.
Trump said he had pushed the prince to normalise relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords that he launched in his first term.
Prince Mohammed said he was working to do so “as soon as possible” but insisted on securing a “clear path of two-state solution” for a Palestinian state first.
Civil nuclear deal
Trump meanwhile reiterated his intention to sell Saudi Arabia coveted F-35 stealth fighters, despite concerns from Israel and warnings from US officials that China could steal technological knowledge about the jets.
In another area of past contention, Trump will sign a deal on a framework for civilian nuclear cooperation, a US official and a source familiar with the negotiations said.
The 40-year-old prince has fostered close ties with Trump and his family over the years, including through investment pledges to the property billionaire-turned-US president.
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