President Donald Trump’s four-day visit to the Middle East this week upended past U.S. fundamentals in the region and alliances with democratic-leaning governments, sidelining Israel and others in favor of Gulf monarchs and Turkey’s authoritarian president, and replacing counterterrorism and democracy-building planks for business deals and U.S. military sales.
Speaking to an investment forum in Riyadh on Tuesday, Trump gushed about Saudi Arabia’s achievements and said, “a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past, and forging a future where 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.”
In a rambling 55-minute speech Trump appeared to chart a new course, saying the region’s transformation—
…has not come from Western interventionists … giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs. No, 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, so many other cities.
He alluded to a decided shift away from U.S. concern over protecting the rights of individuals and long-dispossessed minorities in the region (that include the region’s diminished Christian and Jewish populations), and said—
“In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins … I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgement — my job [is] to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity, and peace.”
At the same time, the United States agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, “the largest defense cooperation agreement” ever, according to the White House. The arrangement is part of $600 billion in deals with the Saudis and other Gulf states.
Those deals have the potential to transform the Persian Gulf “from an artificial-intelligence neophyte into an A.I. power broker,” but raised alarms about security and ceding advanced technology to a region that remains volatile.
In other turnabouts, Trump told the business leaders in Riyadh he was ready to negotiate with Iran, and he announced the full lifting of sanctions on Syria, meeting for the first time with Syria’s new president Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Tacking a new course sits well with Americans wearied by wars on terror and with refugee outflows from the Middle East. It clearly brought new energy and self-respect to leaders in the region. And prospects for change: On Friday, reports surfaced that Israel has been holding secret talks with Syrian officials, including on the once-unthinkable possibility of the new regime in Damascus joining the Abraham Accords to normalize ties with Israel.
But Trump’s over-the-top endorsement of Saudi leaders and outsized transactions may leave little diplomatic leverage should progress sour. “I like you too much,” Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Bin Salman has taken some steps to appear a liberalizing force, and also has good reason to rehabilitate his global image. U.S. intelligence officials concluded that he ordered the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, and the country’s record on religious tolerance and human rights is dismal. In its 2025 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said “religious freedom conditions in Saudi Arabia remained poor despite some improvements” and recommended the State Department designate it a country of concern subject to sanctions. A USCIRF delegation in 2024 cut short its visit in the kingdom when officials asked one delegation member, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, to remove his kippah, a Jewish head covering.
Perhaps the most consequential shift in Trump’s approach is the way it takes Israel for granted, allowing Netanyahu to continue a relentlessly brutal bombing campaign in Gaza while moving away from policy centered around Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The United States earlier this week secured the release of an American hostage Edan Alexander, while Israeli negotiations for remaining hostages languish. The U.S. is also brokering a private aid plan for Gaza, which has been without food, water, and medical supplies since March 2. UN officials have criticized the plan because it dismantles many distribution sites and may not hand out aid impartially.
Lawrence Freedman of King’s College London has an in-depth analysis of Trump’s trip that’s worth your time.
Trump’s announcement on removing sanctions against Syria came as a surprise to the Departments of State and Treasury, according to analyst Charles Lister. Senior leaders had expressed skepticism about the new government of President Sharaa, with counterterrorism director Sebastian Gorka only days earlier describing Sharaa as a “Salafi-jihadist” and “terrorist.”
The State Department has not removed the designation of Sharaa or the terror organization he led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as foreign terrorists. The Syrian President also remains a listed terrorist by the UN Security Council, which has granted waivers for his travel to Gulf states this year.
Lifting sanctions, some for Syria in place for more than 40 years, is a complex legal process, explains Lister. But it gives the country a financial lifeline after a decade of war, and is likely to usher investments from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
Feelings in Syria about the removal are “mixed,” said Nadine Maenza, a Wilson Center Global Fellow and the President of the IRF Secretariat. “It takes away leverage over the government, but religious leaders want sanctions lifted because their people are starving to death.”
Around the world:
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a prisoner exchange during peace talks in Turkey today. Led by a U.S. delegation headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the talks did not include heads of state Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. Negotiations continue around an actual summit and potential ceasefire arrangement.
Afrikaners made their way to the United States this week, after they were fast-tracked under a special refugee program via executive order. Their admission and welcome by top Trump officials comes as more than 14,000 refugees who had completed vetting procedures to enter the United States remain stranded overseas after the Trump administration paused the resettlement program in January. The Afrikaners, who had not fled their country, a key requirement for refugee status, have not undergone those security protocols.
Episcopal Migration Ministries pulled out of the public-private U.S. resettlement partnership, saying the special program for white South Africans “crossed a moral line for the Episcopal Church, which is part of the global Anglican Communion, which boasts among its leaders the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a celebrated and vocal opponent of apartheid in South Africa.” Other groups did support their resettlement while at the same time calling on the Trump administration to sustain the wider resettlement program.
Afghans in the United States on temporary protective status will see their legal status terminated effective July 14. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem cited “an improved security situation” and “stabilizing economy” in Afghanistan as justification. I wrote about the situation for Afghans earlier this month.
The Trump administration is offering a $1,000 “exit bonus” to immigrants who self-deport, and has hired the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help implement orderly departures. IOM’s traditional role is to aid in transit of refugees cleared for resettlement to the United States and other countries.
Mid-term elections in the Philippines made little change to a mounting feud between two political dynasties, the family of current president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and that of his vice-president, Sara Duterte.
The Marcos camp won seats in its battle for control of the Senate as Sara Duterte, impeached by the House of Representatives in February, faces trial by the Senate later this year. Yet key allies of Duterte and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, remain. At the same time, the elder Duterte won reelection as mayor of the city of Davao in Mindanao, even though he’s currently jailed at The Hague pending trial for extrajudicial killings that took place during his presidency. Duterte’s 2016-2022 term featured a brutal crackdown on drugs that led to thousands of deaths.
The country’s largest Protestant denomination, numbering nearly 3 million, has voiced support for Duterte despite international charges, while Catholic leaders have welcomed his prosecution.
Budget deliberations on Capitol Hill include a tax hike on private charitable foundations, just as such groups are trying to find ways to make up for massive U.S. aid cuts at home and abroad. The sweeping changes are embedded in the Republican budget package.
PRO is a privately-funded organization that’s vetting projects cut midstream by the USAID shutdown for matches with private donors. I learned this week of one PEPFAR-related program that’s been helped this way.
British researchers discovered that a Magna Carta document owned by Harvard Law School is in fact an extraordinarily rare original from 1300. Harvard paid $27.50 for the document, believed to be a copy, in 1946. There are now only five known originals in the world. An icon of the Western political tradition, the Magna Carta asserts that the king or ruler is subject to the rule of law.
Returning to the Democratic Republic of Congo, this story from last week, and some of your feedback. Christianity Today has posted a prayer that’s a way to respond to hard news.
For a long while I wanted to visit with Dr. Mukwege at Panzi Hospital because I wondered what could keep him going. Why would a doctor of world renown, with millions of dollars in humanitarian prize money, show up in scrubs day after day to treat women the world scarcely notices?
I learned at Panzi that the secret is the women themselves. They are victims of sexual violence but they also hold a God-given power. Rape in war is systematic, a way to destroy communities by destroying families, to seize territory by unravelling the fabric holding it together. When women overcome this brutality through treatment at places like Panzi and healing together, they renew their power to uphold communities again.
Mukwege knows something other world leaders can learn. Supporting the most vulnerable is sustainable and a winning strategy even in the most difficult circumstances. The women "are a blessing for me," Mukwege told me at the end of a long day. “To lose hope? Then I just finish and leave. I’m not ready to do that.”
I’ll be listening to the soothing white noise of cicadas this weekend, sounds like, and reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, because summer.
Also, whew, after all that there’s this: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.—Hebrews 10:23-24 (ESV)