Gold for Genocide: Trump's Gulf Tour and Cowardice of Kings

US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

By Prof. Junaid S. Ahmad

Donald Trump did not visit Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha as a statesman. He arrived as a showman, strutting across gilded halls like a casino mogul inspecting his offshore franchises. This wasn't diplomacy. It was a grotesque circus — all photo ops and fountain pen deals, choreographed applause and whispered treacheries — staged in palaces polished with petrodollars while Gaza turned to ash.

The contrast could not be more obscene. Just a few hundred miles away, children are starving in a besieged strip of land that has been bombed into oblivion. Hospitals are reduced to rubble. Families sleep underskies filled with drones and warplanes, not stars. And while that suffering unfolds in real time, the self-declared guardians of the Arab world — Gulf Monarchs drunk on oil money and self-preservation — roll out the red carpet for the man who armed the butchers, applauded the bombs, and openly cheered on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

They didn't just smile for the cameras. They signed checks.Trillions in promised investments, pledged to the same man who greenlit bunker busters for Israel and grinned while Gaza burned. Saudi Arabia, whose GDPbarely hits the trillion-dollar mark, is reportedly preparing to pour nearly all of it into the U.S. economy at Trump's request. The UAE has already pledged over $1.4 trillion. Qatar, not wanting to be left behind in this race to the bottom, is giving him a $400 million private jet — a literal palace in the sky. And what, exactly, are they getting in return? Nothing. Not a ceasefire.Not a demand for Palestinian dignity. Not even a promise of restraint.

The Gulf monarchies, it must be said, are not powerless.They control the flow of oil, wield immense financial influence, and have direct lines to every Western capital. They could use that leverage to stop the slaughter in Gaza. They could impose conditions, apply pressure, extract concessions. But they don't. Instead, they cower. They bribe. They pose. Not to protect Palestine — but to protect themselves. Their thrones, their palaces,their illusions of relevance.

Because this is not about diplomacy. It's about deference.Trump understands one language: power. That's why he admires men like Putin andErdogan — autocrats who demand respect, not beg for approval. He mocks Arabrulers to their faces, boasts that King Salman "wouldn't last two weeks"without U.S. protection, and they respond not with defiance, but with more money, more praise, more humiliating obedience. If servility were a sport, theGulf would sweep the medals.

And it's not just policy — it's profit. Since leaving office, the Trump family has transformed the Gulf into a personal goldmine. Hotel in Dubai. A tower in Jeddah. A golf resort in Qatar. Cryptocurrency Schemes and private clubs. Jared Kushner, the princeling son-in-law, has already bagged $2 billion from the Saudis. The entire region has become a sandbox for Trump's business empire, lubricated by bloodshed and cheered on bykings.

What do these regimes seek in return? Immunity. Security.Not for their people — but for themselves. They fear one thing above all else:democracy. An Arab Spring redux terrifies them far more than Israeli bombs. Andso they sign unholy pacts, normalize ties with a genocidal regime, and parrot the language of "peace" while funding its destruction. Trump offers them arms,flattery, and silence — the perfect package for monarchs who want to appear powerful without actually doing anything that might jeopardize their grip on power.

This isn't a partnership. It's a submission. It's the political equivalent of a hostage begging for his own ransom — and paying it in gold.

Meanwhile, Israel continues its rampage. With American weapons and Western impunity, it has transformed Gaza into a graveyard. Hospitals are targeted with bunker busters. UN food aid has collapsed. Skeletal children lie blind in overcrowded wards. Mothers faint from hunger. Entire Neighborhoods have been erased. And the language out of Tel Aviv grows even more openly genocidal: senior Israeli ministers speak casually of "removing" Gaza's population, of forcing Palestinians into "third countries." Ethnic cleansing is no longer whispered — it's policy.

And what does Trump offer? Cover. Bombs. Applause. While The world recoils, Arab rulers reward him. They fawn beside him in gold-plated halls while he praises the same regime that calls for the extermination of their fellow Arabs. Their silence is not strategic — it's purchased.

To be clear, Trump is not immune to pressure. Under Saudi Influence, he backed the brutal war on Yemen, then changed course and dealt with the Houthis. He even entertained overtures to meet Syrian leaders whenRiyadh asked. His policies can be bent. But when it comes to Gaza, the Gulfoffers not a whisper of protest. Not because they can't — but because they won't. Silence has become their statecraft. And in that silence, the bombsfall.

This week marks the anniversary of the Nakba — the catastrophe of 1948 that uprooted over 700,000 Palestinians. That catastrophe is being replayed today, not only by tanks and missiles, but by the complicity of Arab rulers who have decided that power matters more than principle. That their own survival matters more than the survival of Palestine. That Trump's Favor is worth more than Palestinian lives.

The world is not entirely blind. Across Europe, LatinAmerica, and Asia, there are governments refusing to play along. There arepeople protesting in the streets, risking jobs, reputations, even jail time tosay what should be obvious: genocide is not a defense strategy. But in the Arabworld's gilded palaces, there is only cowardice. There are only bent spines and open wallets. Humiliation mistaken for diplomacy. Self-interest draped in national flags.

So let's be honest: this isn't geopolitics. This is a sellout. It's disgrace wrapped in designer robes. With every gift to Trump,every smirk beside Netanyahu, every check signed as Gaza weeps, the Gulfmonarchies etch their names not into history's ledgers of leadership, but into its margins of shame.

Because when the dust settles, when the children are buried and the cameras move on, history will remember who armed the murderers — and who applauded them.

And it will not be kind.

Prof.Junaid S. Ahmad teaches Law, Religion, and Global Politics and is the Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decolonization (CSID), Islamabad, Pakistan. He is a member of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST –https://just-international.org/), Movement for Liberation from Nakba (MLN –https://nakbaliberation.com/), and Saving Humanity and Planet Earth (SHAPE– https://www.theshapeproject.com/). 

18 May 2025

Source: https://countercurrents.org via JUST Commentary, Malaysia