Until Donald Trump, no U.S. president had ever yielded to royal temptations from abroad. But in his second term, Trump has discarded that old inhibition in its totality. Since 2022, the Trump family has been promised hundreds of millions of dollars—in the form of investments, real-estate licensing deals, even an airplane—from Gulf monarchies and the business entities they control.

(Read: America has never seen corruption like this)

During his second term, and especially during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent visit to Washington, Trump has rewarded his benefactors with sweeping geopolitical favors. Their huge investments in his family’s businesses are hard to describe as anything other than the spectacular subversion of American sovereignty, wherein the nation’s foreign policy reads as a thank-you note to the president’s biggest financial boosters.

Really, Trump is adopting the governing style of his backers. In the Gulf states, hardly any distinction exists between public and private interests; the royal family governs the state and dominates the economy. They oversee sovereign-wealth funds, control the largest companies, and treat nominally private enterprises as instruments of royal policy. When a Gulf developer or investment vehicle pays Trump—or licenses his brand—it is not a private commercial transaction. It is a political act: a foreign monarch using his wealth to cultivate influence, dependence, and favor. —Franklin Foer, The Atlantic

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