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Last fall, Donald Trump invited Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, to the White House, for a meeting that went badly off the rails. The president admonished reporters for asking questions MBS might not like; praised the Saudi leader for “the job he’s done in terms of human rights,” despite the horrific human rights record Saudi Arabia has cultivated over the course of many years; and horsed around with the crown prince as if they were a pair of kids having a good time.
Grabbing his guest’s hand, the Republican specifically said, “I don’t care where that hand’s been.”
It was a striking reminder that while Trump has gone to radical lengths to alienate democracies and U.S. allies around the globe, the American president sees the Saudi leader as a kindred spirit who, as he put it last fall, has “always been on the same side of every issue” as Trump.
Nearly a year later, it’s clear that the Republican is still eager to deliver for MBS. The Wall Street Journal reported:
President Trump has formally approved a landmark agreement with Saudi Arabia that will provide the country with a civilian nuclear program and potentially open the door to uranium enrichment in the kingdom’s territory, according to administration officials.
The new deal, which would last 30 years, is estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars. It is designed to give American companies a central role in developing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear infrastructure while shutting out other foreign competitors.
While the agreement hasn’t been formally unveiled by the White House, Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke with Fox Business on Wednesday morning and seemed to confirm the news, saying on the record that he expects a “top level” nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, which will come with the “highest standards for nuclear safety and safeguards ever done.”
If these developments sound at all familiar, it’s because the issue has been percolating for quite a while. Indeed, as a presidential candidate more than a decade ago, Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he was opposed to nuclear proliferation in general, though he was open to the idea of Japan and South Korea developing nuclear weapons of their own. When the host asked what would happen if and when Saudi Arabia also asked to join the nuclear club, the future president replied, “Can I be honest with you? It’s going to happen, anyway. It’s going to happen anyway. It’s only a question of time.”
In Trump’s first term, there was a related controversy stemming from allegations that former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn wanted to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.
Years later, the president is apparently poised to follow through with a new nuclear deal with Riyadh — despite the fact that the Middle East giant already has an abundance of oil, so it’s not as if Saudi officials have an energy problem that they hope to solve with nuclear power plants.
A New York Times report added, “Although the agreement likely would have support among many Republicans, some U.S. lawmakers from both parties along with Israeli officials have expressed opposition to such a plan, fearing that the kingdom could use a civilian nuclear project to eventually develop nuclear weapons.”
Among the core questions facing the administration is whether the president, whose family business has significant private sector dealings with Saudi officials, has fully thought through the enormous proliferation risks associated with such a move — beyond saying “MBS is nice to me.”
For what it’s worth, the burgeoning deal will need congressional approval under the Atomic Energy Act, but the White House probably isn’t too concerned: Not only do Republicans control both chambers, but blocking the agreement would require veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate, which appears to be an unrealistically high hurdle to clear.
In 2018, one prominent GOP senator helped champion a different proposal that would block nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia unless Congress affirmatively voted to approve it.
The senator’s name was Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is now serving as Trump’s secretary of state. His bill never received a vote.
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