Name: Trump: U.S.–Saudi partnership one of the world’s most consequential
Uploaded: 2025-11-20T00:33:05.181Z
Duration: 3 min 22 s
Description: President Trump on Wednesday again touted his relationship with Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.

President Trump on Wednesday again touted his relationship with Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.

Washington

President Trump emphasized the importance of the U.S.–Saudi relationship during remarks at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, describing the partnership as one of the world's most consequential. He highlighted a strengthened alliance with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and announced Saudi plans for $1 trillion in U.S. investments, though similar past pledges did not fully materialize.

The discussions also included Saudi Arabia's increasing interest in U.S. technology and military equipment, with Trump announcing the first planned sale of F-35 fighter jets to the kingdom. The president and the crown prince did not address the press or mention contentious issues such as the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump: U.S.–Saudi partnership one of the world’s most consequential

For a second day, President Trump touted his relationship with Saudi Arabia and the United States, his relationship with his crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Here's the president earlier today at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum here in Washington. The partnership between our two nations is among the most consequential in the entire world and together the crown prince and I are making an alliance stronger and more powerful than it's ever been before. We're joined now by Nancy Cordes, North Lawn of the White House, one of the most consequential in the world. That's a pretty big statement. Yeah, today was all about the president touting just how close he and the crown prince and by extension his country, Saudi Arabia, are. He made the case repeatedly, Major, that he has a stronger relationship with Saudi Arabia than any of his predecessors and there were none of the sort of embarrassing issues cropping up today that the president was so unhappy with yesterday, most notably the killing of Jamal Khashoggi back in 2018. The president and the crown prince did not take questions from the press today. Instead, they were at the Kennedy Center to talk not just about their close personal relationship, but their close and growing financial relationship. The president touting $1 trillion worth of investment that the Saudis say they're going to be making in the U.S. It is worth noting that they have made claims like that before and the dollars didn't all end up coming in at the end of the day during the first Trump term, so we'll be watching to see if there is a greater investment this time around. Really glad you brought that last point up, Nancy, because I was on that trip in 2017 to Saudi Arabia. There was tremendous declarations from the president about investments that were going to come from the Saudis in the United States, sales of this and sales of that, lots of corporations were there, and a great description of jobs to be created in the United States because of all these transactions, and yet you and Weijia Jiang and others on our team at the White House went back and looked at the numbers from the Trump administration and they just simply don't match those declarations. Sure. Now, it is true that the Saudis are in a slightly different position now than they were during the first Trump term. They have made no secret of the fact that they are very eager to compete with the largest nations in the world when it comes to technology, when it comes to AI, and in order to do that, they need to buy massive amounts of that technology from the United States. They also look to the U.S. for military equipment, so the president just announced this week he's going to be selling F-35s to the Saudis for the first time. They're interested in buying magnets, rare earths, materials, all kinds of things that they would be interested in purchasing from the U.S. no matter who was president, but definitely the fact that Trump and the Saudis have such a close relationship, a close business relationship going back decades as well, greases the wheels, if you will, and this is an ongoing conversation. In fact, the president bragged at one point that he can call the crown prince at any hour of the day or night and talk to him about anything that's on his mind. Nancy Cordes, Northall, the White House, thank you so very much.

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