Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei described Trump’s visit as a “performance to project strength”, condemning Washington’s pressuring of Iran under the guise of diplomacy.
On May 16, 2025, Donald Trump concluded his three-day tour of the Persian Gulf. Global headlines focused on the staggering numbers:
- over USD 140 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia
- multi-billion-dollar infrastructure and AI investment pledges from the UAE and Qatar
- promises of hundreds of billions in Gulf capital flowing into the US economy
Yet beneath the dazzling surface of this diplomatic pageantry lay a darker truth, one not of global leadership, but of crumbling moral legitimacy and deepening contradictions within the liberal narrative that once underpinned the US-led global order.
Today’s West Asia is increasingly polarized. On one side are blocs aligned with the Palestinian cause and regional resistance movements; on the other, Gulf monarchies pursuing normalization with Israel and deepening economic integration with the West. Trump’s visit unmistakably sided with the latter. While Israeli bombs have killed over 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza, Trump made no serious mention of Palestine. Instead, he praised the “stability” and “economic prospects” of his host countries, a discourse that cloaks silence in the face of injustice.
This contradiction is not merely political: it is philosophical. John Locke, a founding figure of liberal thought, emphasized the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property. He envisioned a political order based on tolerance and consent. Yet US foreign policy today treats liberalism not as a moral compass, but as a strategic tool. It speaks of human rights while selling weapons to repressive regimes. It preaches democracy while enforcing crushing sanctions that target civilian populations. Countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Yemen remain under relentless economic warfare.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, in a speech on May 17, described Trump’s visit as a “performance to project strength” and condemned Washington’s strategy of pressuring Iran under the guise of diplomacy. While the US continues indirect negotiations with Tehran, Trump’s rhetoric during the trip was marked by threats, exposing the fundamental inconsistency of US foreign policy.
Regionally, the message was clear: security and investment are reserved for those who align with US interests. However, according to the latest Arab Opinion Index, over 76% of people in the region see Israel not Iran as the biggest threat to regional stability. While Arab rulers welcomed contracts and photo ops, these deals lacked popular legitimacy.
Unlike previous US presidents who worked within alliance frameworks, Trump has taken a purely transactional approach. Amid a global energy crisis driven by sanctions on Russia, Trump ignored the potential for regional cooperation, particularly between Iran, Saudi Arabia, and others, to stabilize energy markets. Instead, he prioritized personal and political gains.
Iran, for its part, is not passive. Having lost strategic ground in Syria, Tehran is determined not to cede influence in Iraq, Lebanon, or Yemen. While Trump courts Gulf rulers with arms deals, Iran is expanding ideological alliances across the region including outreach to religious minorities in pursuit of its resistance doctrine.
In the end, Trump’s visit did not advance peace or justice. It revealed, once again, the widening gap between governments and peoples in the region. Billion-dollar deals and military pacts cannot compensate for the silence on Palestine, the suffering under sanctions, or the erosion of dignity. For the majority of the region’s people, this was no victory; it was a reminder that the American-led order can no longer claim moral authority.
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