Saudi Arabia has been eager to buy dozens of F-35 fighter jets, but Pentagon officials have warned against it. As The New York Times reported last week, the risks were outlined in a broad report compiled by the Defense Intelligence Agency (part of the Defense Department), which noted that China could acquire the warplane’s technology, thanks to a security partnership between Riyadh and Beijing.
As this week got underway, Donald Trump announced that his administration had agreed to sell the planes anyway.
The American president didn’t elaborate on how he arrived at this decision or whether he put much stock in the Pentagon’s warnings. Rather, the Republican simply said that the Saudis have “been a great ally” and moved on.
The decision is controversial in its own right, but complicating matters is the context: Trump made the comments just one day before the White House was scheduled to host Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who is getting a black-tie dinner and “all the trappings of a state visit,” as a Washington Post report summarized.
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Complicating matters further is the increasingly blurry line between Trump’s administration and the interests of his family business. A separate New York Times report added:
[T[he mixing of politics and profitmaking during President Trump’s second term has shattered American norms, shocking scholars who study ethics and corruption. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, engaging in sensitive national security talks with a foreign leader who also oversees a major construction project, known as Diriyah, that is in talks over a potential deal with the Trump family business.
The same report added that the Trump Organization’s business partner, Dar Global, “has announced at least four Trump-branded developments in Saudi Arabia.”
How much of this influenced the president’s decision to sell the fighter jets that Riyadh was eager to purchase? We don’t know, but the point is that U.S. administrations have a responsibility to make sure that such questions don’t need to be asked. There shouldn’t even be a possibility that the White House would be swayed by the president’s personal financial interests, especially when making decisions related to national security.
And yet, here we are, watching the incumbent American shrug with indifference in response to questions about ethics and possible corruption, as he rewards a foreign authoritarian ally who’s in a position to reward Trump’s family business.