Beyond the headlines: Explain Trump's golf 'Billions'

By Pesha Magid, manya Saini, Andrew Mills

Riad/Doha (Reuters) -Us -us -President Donald Trump completed his Gulf tour on Friday after securing the White House in combined shops over 2 trillion dollars for the US economy.

How this number was calculated is unclear. Based on a Reuters balance of all announced specific offers, the total value is over 700 billion US dollars. However, the inflation of the deal is not unusual during a big visit, let alone one of a US president who has long made itself proud as an expert dealmaker.

The trip included large orders from Boeing aircraft, offers to buy us defense equipment, data and technology agreements and other contracts.

However, financial experts and diplomats say that the headlines were padded in the request of both sides to present the extent of their cooperation.

Of the corporate agreements worth up to $ 549 billion during Trump's golf tour, many non-binding memorandum of understanding were a Reuters analysis.

Defense turnover voted with Saudi Arabia and Qatar about the total balance of 730 billion US dollars by Reuters' calculations.

Reuters could not independently check whether additional agreements were signed without public disclosure.

“The amounts are inflated, possible expenses are actually counted – and most solid shops … would have happened regardless of who was in the White House,” said Justin Alexander, director of the Khalij Economics.

During his first term, Trump said that Saudi Arabia agreed with the USA with $ 450 billion, but the actual trade and investment streams between 2017 and 2020 amounted to less than 300 billion US dollars, as can be seen from the data created by the Arab Gulf States Institute.

“Dealmaker in the boss”

In response to a question about the figures, the spokeswoman for the White House, Anna Kelly, said Reuters: “President Trump is the chief administrator, and these trillion dollars of business agreements are a great news for American companies and workers. The president quickly makes his promise to make America strong and wealthy.”

A catari civil servant achieved by Reuters did not provide any extensive details of Doha's commitment to Washington, and Saudi and VAE officers did not immediately respond to inquiries about details.

Memorandum of understanding are less formal than contracts and do not always turn into cash transactions.

For example, Saudi Aramco announced that there were 34 deals with US companies worth up to 90 billion US dollars for the AI infrastructure and other areas. However, most connections were not binding without a value being connected.

Aramco's agreement to buy 1.2 million tons of LNG per year for a term of 20 years from NextDecade was announced months before, but was still recorded in Tally on Wednesday.

The White House said that agreements that were signed with the Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Bin Hamad al-Thani in Qatar would generate an economic exchange worth at least $ 1.2 trillion and contained a sale of $ 96 billion to Qatar Airways. But it did not offer a comprehensive collapse

An official Qatar civil servant said that Katar's sovereign assets had invested 500 billion US dollars in the US economy in the US economy in the next 10 years, but this did not contain anything concrete.

“If the past is precedent, promised business that does not achieve a real return on capital will be put back up at some point after it has fulfilled its political purpose,” said Firas Maksad, managing director of the consulting firm Eurasia Group.

Washington signed a weapon package of 142 billion US dollars on the defense side, with Saudi Arabia covering purchases of more than a dozen US companies, and what Trump said was a defense contract of $ 42 billion with Qatar.

During his first term, Trump celebrated an announcement of approximately 110 billion US dollars during his visit to Saudi Arabia.

But such businesses extend over many years and are difficult to follow. From 2018, only $ 14.5 billion was initiated and the congress began to question the business in the light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Beyond the numbers

Despite the indefinence of the obligations and schedules, the news has increased some market tactics.

On Wednesday, Deutsche Bank attributed an increase in NVIDIA by 4.16% to the Mou announced by Saudi State Oil Giant Aramco.

And there were specific new offers for US companies.

Qatar Airways' order for 160 Boeing Jetliner with GE Aerospace Engines is worth 96 billion US dollars. And Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways will spend 14.5 billion US dollars for buying 28 Boeing aircraft with GE engines.

The Boeing shares closed by 0.64%on Wednesday after the unveiling of Doha.

But some of the real profits of Trump's tour are beyond the raw numbers.

The most important thing is that the three golf countries have received the US support for files that they see as the key.

Saudi Arabia is approaching his many years of effort to develop a civilian nuclear industry that Trump has completed before the normalization of relationships with Israel, an important victory for the kingdom.

The United Arab Emirates have signed a frame that brings it to a way to acquire the advanced semiconductors that she wanted to fulfill their long-term ambition of the AI leadership.

And Qatar received Trump's assurance that the United States would protect it if it was ever attacked.

“I think there is a broader symbolic dividend here,” said Hasan Alhasan, Senior Fellow for the Politics of the Middle East at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“While many of the traditional partners and allies of the US allies had a few months of relationships with the United States and tried to navigate Trump's economic policy, and his controversial approach to the Russia-Ukraine War, here are the golf states, the unprecedented business transactions and weapon sales and their bilateral relationship to the next level.”

(Reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha, Pesha Magid in Riad and manya Saini in Bangalore; additional reporting by Hadeel Al Saygh and Federico Maccioni in Dubai; Gram Slattery in Abu Dhabi;

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