A Tale From The Arabian Nights - Donald Trump, The Saudi Prince, A Trillion Dollars, And A True Desert Romance

Ask any American about Saudi Arabia, and he will tell you, 'oil' and 'camels'.  If well read, he will mention Wahabi fundamentalism, the financing of European madrassahs, and a do-or-die hatred of Iran, women in purdah, and fabulous, untold wealth. All of which is true in some measure.

In principle the Kingdom is the antithesis of Western values - harshly authoritarian, reluctant to give women any civil or legal rights, and a ruling monarchy which, to paraphrase the segregationist words of George Wallace, 'Monarchy today, Monarchy tomorrow, Monarchy forever'; and yet there in the Oval Office sat the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Salman. 

Of course he sat there, bringing with him over a trillion dollars in oil money to invest in the United States, a creative new twist in the art of the deal.  Why stick with pipeline oil when the United States can have the oil and a share of the revenues the Kingdom realizes from its sale.

Machiavellian politics at its very best.  Foreign policy should be dictated by enlightened self interest, nothing more, and with that conviction the American days of exceptionalism, moral interventionism, and high principle are over and done with. 

 

A testy reporter brought up some unpleasantness.  The United States had in the past repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia for the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence concluded was approved by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man sitting today at the right hand of the American President. 

Trump dismissed the question, repeating only his admiration for the Prince, the Kingdom, and the generosity of both.  Saudi investment in the United States economy would bolster the relationship between the two countries, signal a new era in financial and economic cooperation, and would cement the bilateral military alliance of the two countries both of which stood tall and defiantly against the Islamist aggressor, Iran. 

 

Wilfred Thesiger wrote a short book called Across the Empty Quarter, a memoir of his travels in the emptiest, most inhospitable region on earth - a vast Arabian desert of impossible heat, frigid nights, and miles of unwatered, harsh terrain of sand and rocks.

Thesiger had particular respect for the nomads of the desert, men who could survive on very little, men of incredible discipline, fortitude, and uncanny perception - whether a camel on the horizon was male or female, and if she was with milk, where, across hundreds of miles of dry, empty sand there was a watering hole and how to navigate the dunes, the shifting sands, and the incomprehensible emptiness to find it. 

Arab men were real men, not the faux, cross-dressing, transgender men of America; not the feminized, slavish, complaisant men doing women's bidding; and not the querulous, timid, hesitant men asking women's permission for what should be theirs by rights. 

Arab nomads were fiercely independent - scimitars concealed beneath flowing robes, but always ready to use, a determination to wander the desert endlessly, moving as the camel herds moved, as the water appeared and disappeared.  They lived on the margins.  Their life was one of resolve, faith, and limitless courage.

 

So even if the stories about Saudi malfeasance were true; and despite the prevail ing Sharia principles of society and right behavior and the treatment of women, Saudi and the United States could do business.  Not only were Machiavellian principles in play, but kinship.  At heart, Trump was an Arab nomad, the last of a defiant an uncompromising, undaunted, unintimidated race of willful men. 

Of course the liberal media went berserk over the meeting.  How could the President of the United States sit there and sip tea with a misogynist tyrant?  A woman-hating monarchist, a man responsible for locking women in dark dungeons, freeing them for a few moments of sexual pleasure, then sending them back into a hole of abject fealty and male dominance. 

Although liberals may think that the world is as they would like it - a jamboree of confraternity and joy, a peaceful, verdant, free and open place where everyone is welcome - it is not and never has been.  Saudi Arabia is a reminder of the incorrigibility of human nature, unpleasant for the modern feminist to stomach, but there for all to see.  Monarchy has been history's rule, not the exception.  Wealth has been the Holy Grail of all civilizations.  Territorialism, self-interest, fundamentalist faith, and fierce patriotism have been endemic, not uncommon. 

So Trump's political friendship with the Saudi Prince has as much to do with worldview, perception of human nature, traditionalism, and sexuality as it does with oil dollars. 

It is no surprise that despite  their geopolitical conflicts, Trump admires Putin, Xi, and Erdogan - secular monarchs who make no excuses for honoring their countries' past empires.  The great Chinese Dynastic Emperors, Russian Tsars, and Ottoman Sultans were men of power, absolute will, and natural ability.  They all had visions of greatness and were unapologetic about seeing it.  Their resolve was cast in steel,  unbreakable and permanent. 

 

Ironically the No Kings rallies - no more than Cub Scout jamborees of friendliness, camaraderie, and togetherness - were on to something.  In his heart of hearts, Trump did think of himself as a king - not the crown-and-scepter, ermine cloak, Praetorian Guard, castle variety, but the native, natural one, the Empty Quarter nomad royalty, the inner prince. 

American liberals have always looked to an imagined utopian future and never to the realities of the past.  For them, history has no lessons to teach because the new, secular religion of progressivism will show the way to a compassionate, verdant, peaceful, inclusive world.  Accordingly, the past is irrelevant, a brutal concoction of colonialism, monarchy, empire, and oppression - events not expressions of an ineluctable, permanent human nature, but products of exogenous, environmental causes - causes that can be eliminated. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  If anything, history has shown that the world is one of violence and unrest, kept modestly civil by kings, queens, and emperors.  Social hierarchy is the rule, not the exception.  The Soviet Union's attempts to deny the rule ended in abject failure but incredibly democratic socialists and progressives still think the exception can be made the rule. 

Not Donald Trump and the Saudi Prince, a match made in heaven.  The State dinner was welcome and appropriate, a celebration of a true romance.