Trump II reversed his retaliatory tariffs on China this week en route to the Gulf region’s three richest nations who pledged $2 trillion to the US economy. His four-day swing through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also saw the trio invest in $TRUMP, real estate, LIV golf, hotels and resorts. As American interventionism gives way to mideast crown princes, their increasingly intertwined economic pacts and cultures could reshape American values.

During a four-day swing through the Gulf region, a primrose path was tread through an American ethos to cut deals with their militaries, technology sectors, and economies. A string of agreements were inked during the visit including a $600 billion investment commitment from Saudi Arabia; a $1.2 trillion economic exchange agreement with Qatar; $200 billion in U.S.-United Arab Emirates commercial deals; and $243.5 billion to U.S.-Qatar commercial and defense deals.

However, the US president struggles with the violence of war, and his eye on the Nobel Peace Prize relies less on American exceptionalism — an American ethos which advances liberty, democracy and individualism to the world — then on a strategy of dealmaking which by consequence stymies war into checkmate in the Middle East. A region, at present, in bed with two ideologically different hemispheres.

Those deals were struck this week amongst royal princes and an American president in the land of Arabia. The sun is rising in the East, appears to be setting in the West, and yet the power balance in both at present are animated by civil and human rights, and the cost of surrendering those rights to authoritarian leaders in exchange for their protection. Who's Who anymore is somewhat of a Mousetrap, and any blind spot amongst them could set the trap irreversibly into motion.

Trump lifted US sanctions against Syria on Tuesday, a decision that shook the region and took his own advisors by surprise. Turkey and Saudi Arabia asked Trump to lift the sanctions and meet Syria’s caretaker government. After 13 years of civil war — 656,000+ casualties, 6.6 million external refugees — Trump complied with a request to give Syria “a fresh start and chance at a better future.” With a simple declaration, Trump seemingly lifted Damascus — one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world — out of the East and supplanted it in the West.

Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa — whose militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew five decades of Assad family dictatorship last December — once fought U.S. troops in Iraq as a member of Al-Qaeda, and even recently had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. Trump called Syria's new interim leader a “young, attractive, impressive guy with a very strong past.”

Over the past nearly 6 months, President Ahmad al-Sharaa has undergone a transformational makeover. He now flies the friendlier skies on diplomatic missions to Paris; kisses the ring of liberals like President Emmanuel Macron; dons a Stuart Hughes Diamond Edition suit; and when encouraged to sign the Abraham Accords by Trump in Riyadh this week simply replied, “Yes.”

Israel and Syria have technically remained in a perpetual state of war since the establishment of Israel in 1948, including decades of hostilities over disputed territory, particularly the Golan Heights. The move gets Syria out of bed with Iran and Russia, and seemingly sets the stage for an increasingly cohesive Middle East to fraternize with the West. "He's got a real shot at pulling it together," Trump said on Air Force One, before landing in Doha to meet the Emir of Qatar. "Our two nations have taken their relationship to another level.”

On Wednesday, Qatar purchased 160 Boeing aircraft for $96 billion; signed a letter of intent to invest $10 million in their US Al Udeid Air Base; and secured a historic $1.2 trillion economic commitment in a deal both Trump and Qatar describe as a “win-win.” While the Gulf nations — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain — account for the lion’s share of lavish and expensive gifts to American presidents, the Qatari royal family’s forthcoming "palace in the sky” — a 747-8 series the U.S. and Qatar were initially bartering for — takes the cake with their best and final offer coming in just this week. “We’ll just gift it. It's OK?”

By Friday, Trump had secured $200 billion in new U.S.-UAE deals, and accelerated the previously committed $1.4 trillion investment in US sectors including energy, manufacturing and AI. Bonus: The Syrian government and Dubai-based DP World simultaneously signed a memorandum of understanding worth $800 million to develop Syria's port of Tartous. “Look, we want Syria to succeed," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One shortly departing Abu Dhabi.

While Israel offers only a military solution in Syria, Yemen, Iran and Gaza, Trump’s refusal to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this trip signals a growing rift. It coincides with Putin’s refusal to meet Trump and Zelensky in Turkey on Friday, all as the Gulf region and Americans seem to be harmonizing. At a VIP business conference in Riyadh, Trump said, “The days when American officials would fly in beautiful planes, giving you lectures on how to live, and how to govern your own affairs, are over.”

The Middle East’s 16 economies and 371 million people creates a GDP of $5+ trillion, a PPP of $13 trillion, and where and with whom they choose to do business could trip the Thucydides Trap. History alights upon what happens when a rising power challenges the ruling nation. Take 2025's U.S.-Chinese tariff and trade negotiations as a for instance. As Washington ramped up and backed down on tariffs, 60 major global stock exchanges followed suit, leading to sell offs of stocks, bonds, and a contraction in spending, hiring, and the global economy. In 2024, the US economy grew by 2.8 percent. In Q1 2025, it declined by 0.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Economic transactions, security guarantees, nuclear proliferation, even peace in the Middle East now rely upon globalism: an interconnectedness of world economies and driven by shared ethos, understanding, and alignment of shared values.

Trump wants a nuclear deal with Iran, and instead of dismantling its nuclear program proposes a joint nuclear-enrichment venture involving Arab countries and U.S. investments. As Ukraine completes steps for a minerals deal with the US this week, Trump's unconventional Syria trip et. al. marks a paradigm shift in the West.

“No more lectures on how to live,” Trump assured the Saudis, whilst on the same trip declaring a “freedom zone” in Gaza. "A lot of people are starving," Trump says, of Gaza's now 53,000 casualties of war. "I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good — make it a freedom zone. Let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone.” Sadly, Trump's vision for the “Riviera of the Middle East” comes at a cost of the abject genocide of the Palestinian people.

As Air Force One’s new flying palace files a unique flight plan for democracy, it’s journey to democracy in the political lifecycle is really just a connection. It stops at Demagogy first — to take on fear and bias — before embarking to Ochlocracy and the rule of the mob. Then it continues on to Oligarchy, and the land of the rich, from whence it began and always seems to end it’s journey.

To the extent she flies the colors of liberty, democracy, and individualism depends entirely upon which leg of the journey we're on, and if or whether she diverts, reroutes, or is ditched in a far away land.