Sure. But, in the process, he is driving business away. His -probably illegal- tariffs, his unreliable behavior...as I think you said earlier, he's forcing other countries to rely on China for stability and predictability in trade.

Oh, I certainly agree. I think the effect of his policies is negative. But what he wants is for everyone out there to stop fighting and get down to the business of letting America make money. Or if you're cynical, letting Donald Trump and friends make money.

Not everything he does is about that, of course, and he has other things he wants to do with his office. I just think that for the Middle East, that's what he wants to see happen. He's not looking for an Arab Spring to replace the authoritarian governments there with something freer but more unpredictable, and he's not looking for any particular resolution of the various Arab-Israeli conflicts that he thinks is more or less just. He wants everyone to just stop getting into fights, and make the region open for American business interests to come in and invest with reduced political risk.