Speaking at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum 2025 on May 13, the White House reported that President Trump stated that “the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together—not bombing each other out of existence.”
Trump took aim at the U.S. neo-cons who, over recent decades, have started war after war, destroyed countries, and then moved in with “nation-building” policies to reshape them to their liking. “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders,’ ‘neo-cons,’ or ‘liberal non-profits,’ like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad,” Trump stated. “In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built—and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”
“My preference will always be for peace and partnership, whenever those outcomes can be achieved. Always,” he stated.
