Trump’s Red-Carpet Reset with MBS: Deals, Deflections, and a Shifting World Order

When the old gods fall: Saudi petrodollars, Epstein files greenlit, European abandoned, and the end of the liberal order

November 18, 2025 – President Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House today with full military honors: South Lawn arrival, 21-gun salute, F-35 and F-16 flyovers, and a black-tie state dinner. This is MBS’s first U.S. visit since the 2018 Khashoggi murder. The message is unmistakable: human-rights scandals are being buried under hundreds of billions in Saudi investment and a dramatic American pivot toward the Middle East.

Here’s everything that happened and why it signals a historic realignment.

The Saudi Visit – Key Moments

• A Lavish Welcome and the Push for Saudi Cash Trump personally greeted MBS as he stepped out of his limousine, the two leaders exchanging warm embraces before watching a thunderous flyover. Reporters noted the “lavish” treatment echoed the red-carpet receptions MBS gave Trump in Riyadh last May. The core message? Saudi investment in America. Riyadh has already pledged hundreds of billions in U.S. deals, with more expected—AI infrastructure, mining, energy, and beyond. Today MBS raised the pledge to nearly $1 trillion in total commitments, declaring Saudi Arabia “believes in the future of America.”

• From Oil to AI: Building “The Next Aramco” Just as American engineers created Aramco in the 1930s to extract oil and cement a century-long partnership, today’s deals aim to make Saudi money and Gulf energy power American AI dominance. Saudi Arabia is pouring tens of billions into U.S.-backed data centers, semiconductors, and advanced tech while American companies (AWS, Google, etc.) build facilities on Saudi soil – all designed to keep the West ahead of China in the race for artificial intelligence.

• Hedging China While Betting Everything on U.S. Tech China is still Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner, but Riyadh is deliberately aligning its long-term future with American innovation. Gulf capital funds U.S. AI leadership; U.S. chips and software flow to Gulf data centers powered by cheap Saudi energy. The gamble: Saudi Arabia can keep Beijing’s spies away from America’s technological crown jewels while selling everything else to China.

• F-35 Sale Greenlit – A Desperate Fire Sale? Trump approved up to 48 F-35s for Saudi Arabia, reversing Biden restrictions and framing it as a masterstroke. But after years of trashing NATO allies, threatening massive tariffs, and joking Canada should be the 51st state, traditional buyers are fleeing: Gripen and Rafale orders are surging, Canada is shopping alternatives, and Belgium, Switzerland and Finland have gone cold on Lockheed. With the F-35 order book shrinking and production lines at risk, Riyadh’s cheque looks less like strategy and more like an emergency bailout to save American jobs. Insiders say the U.S. defence industry is quietly furious at having to offload its crown jewel just to keep the programme alive.

• Rare Earth Breakthrough to Break China’s Monopoly Saudi geological surveys (originally for uranium) discovered massive deposits of dysprosium, samarium, and other critical minerals China currently controls at 90–99%. Joint ventures with American firms will mine and process them, potentially reducing U.S. vulnerability in semiconductors, EV motors, wind turbines, and F-35 production.

• Civil Nuclear Deal Unlocked The biggest obstacle to U.S.–Saudi nuclear cooperation – Riyadh’s previous insistence on domestic uranium enrichment – has been dropped. Both sides have agreed on a “123” civil-nuclear framework (the same gold-standard deal the UAE accepted). Saudi Arabia gets reliable, carbon-free electricity for its AI data centers; America gets another lever pulling the Kingdom deeper into the Western technology ecosystem.

• Khashoggi Question Shut Down – “Things Happen” When a reporter asked about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Trump cut in sharply: “Don’t embarrass our guest… Things happen.” He praised MBS’s leadership and dismissed Khashoggi as “extremely controversial.” The Crown Prince then weighed in, saying criticism of the killing only serves “Bin Laden’s purpose” of destroying the U.S.-Saudi relationship. A stark reminder that accountability is off the table.

• Who Was Jamal Khashoggi? A Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist living in the U.S., Khashoggi was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, murdered, and dismembered by a Saudi hit squad. U.S. intelligence concluded with high confidence that MBS approved the operation. Riyadh has always denied the Crown Prince’s direct involvement.

• Europe’s Fighter Dream Collapses as FCAS Faces Dismemberment On the very day Trump hands the keys to the F-35 to Riyadh, Europe’s €100 billion flagship Future Combat Air System (FCAS) is teetering on total collapse. France and Germany are now openly discussing scrapping the joint next-generation fighter jet entirely — the original centrepiece of the program — due to irreconcilable industrial feuds between Airbus and Dassault over workshare, design control, and suppliers.

• The European Fallback: A Combat Cloud Built to Survive Without America The fallback plan: salvage only the AI-driven “combat cloud” (a shared command-and-control network linking jets, drones, sensors, and ground systems) led by Airbus Defence, Thales, and Indra. Berlin is quietly exploring replacing France with Britain or Sweden for any future manned fighter effort. European officials are blunt: “We can live with several jets in Europe but we need one cloud system for all of them… independent from the American system, because there might be situations in which we’ll be alone without the Americans.”

• Today We Watch F-35s Salute a Man Accused of Murder While Europe Prepares to Stand Alone Today we watch F-35s fly over the White House in salute to a Saudi ruler widely accused of ordering a journalist’s murder, while Europe scrambles to build its own defence systems because it no longer trusts Washington’s commitment. The question every American should be asking: Who really controls U.S. alliances now—Donald Trump, or his wallet?

Ideological Red Flags – The Post-Liberal Turn Accelerates

• Scott Adams Says the Quiet Part Out Loud MAGA stalwart Scott Adams (Dilbert creator, 1M+ followers) openly declared in a recent video that the administration is moving toward treating political ideology itself as a domestic-terrorism red flag — a line that used to be fringe but now aligns with actual policy signals.

• Post-Liberalism Moves From Theory to Power Vice President JD Vance and others at the highest levels are openly aligned with Catholic post-liberal thinkers who argue liberal democracy’s focus on individual rights and market neutrality hollowed out the nation’s moral core, and that a strong state must now enforce a substantive vision of the “common good” — including, if necessary, “regime change” to a post-liberal order.

• Old Gods, New Gods, and the One Throne That Outlasts Them All In Norse myth the final war begins when the trickster Loki — once bound, now freed — stands with the frost giants against the Æsir, and even some children of the gods fight on the side of chaos. In Revelation the final judgment begins when every human kingdom, every alliance, every trillion-dollar tech pact is exposed as temporary before the Great White Throne. Both stories are about the same terrifying moment: the old order discovers it has been trusting in powers that will either betray it or simply burn away. Europe planning for a future “alone without the Americans,” post-liberal voices promising a new authoritarian “common good.” Every one of these is a false refuge. When the real Ragnarök (or the real Revelation) comes, the only question that will matter is the one no fighter jet, no sovereign wealth fund, and no ideological regime can answer for you: Is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life — the only register that survives when both the old gods and the new gods are gone?

The Epstein Files Drama – Exploding on the Same Day

• House Overwhelmingly Passes Release Bill (427–1) Hours before the Saudi arrival, the House voted almost unanimously to force the Justice Department to release every remaining document on Jeffrey Epstein. Cheers erupted when the result was announced. The bill now heads to the Senate, where Republican leadership could still block it.

• Trump’s Sudden Reversal – From “Democrat Hoax” to “I’ll Give Everything” Days ago Trump called the Epstein story a partisan attack. Now he vows to sign the bill and release “everything.” When pressed during the MBS press availability, he exploded at an ABC reporter, denied ever visiting Epstein’s island, called the network “fake news,” and threatened to revoke its license.

• A National Embarrassment? Critics Pile On Former allies and victims’ advocates labeled Trump’s behavior everything from deflection to a “national embarrassment,” especially as old photos and flight logs resurface. The timing—right as Trump courts authoritarian leaders—only amplified the backlash.

For more than a century—from the trenches of World War I, through the beaches of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, to the Cold War stand-off and post-9/11 missions in Afghanistan and Iraq—the United States has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Europe in defense of freedom and democracy. Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers gave their lives on European soil and alongside European allies for those ideals. NATO, built on that shared sacrifice, has been the bedrock of Western security since 1949.

As the U.S. pivots to a Saudi-Israeli axis, Europe is waking up to the possibility that the transatlantic security umbrella may be closing for good.

It’s often said that when old gods die, something new is born. But when the old gods were the transatlantic bond forged in blood for liberty, and what rises in its place is a transactional axis with authoritarian petrostates… we have to ask whether the soul of America is part of the deal—or if it’s already been sold. This is why we must arm Ukraine and protect democracy in the Middle East.