Trump Stoops to Asking for Arab Investments to Help Rebuild U.S. Economy
Historic Change On his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he changed that decades-old equation: He effectively asked for foreign investment to create jobs in America. For generations, the U.S. has been the world’s largest buyer of goods and services, and other countries have sought to invest in America’s technology, real estate and industrial capability. But the focus of Trump’s Middle East visit was not only to hawk the products — planes, cars and arms, among them — rather to attract huge investments for America in the coming days.
New Focus: Toward America’s Investment Need 
AMERICA WAS ALWAYS THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY: Even for foreign nationals who couldn’t let go of everything back in the old country.Japan: From “Rich And Bumbling” Superpower In 1991 To Investing $70 Billion In US REITs In 2021.How bad could things be if it/took anywhere from 25 to 30 years for Japan to own a massive amount of property in ghost town America/Japan even held 25 percent of Los Angeles property during the 80s/90s and took 30 years to finally see that much US property/Oh yeah/Mel Gibson was right! As the global landscape shifted in the years to come, America’s formerly preeminent industrial power also started to change. Now, in the age of tech giants such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, which have been leading U.S. technological innovation, large swaths of the industrial and manufacturing base that defined the U.S. economy for the 20th century have been hollowed out.
Trump’s demand of Arab countries ($600 billion worth from Saudi, $200 billion from Qatar, and a shocking $1.4 trillion from the UAE) is a little window into a new American economic reality. These investments are a reflection of the strategic reality that America’s industrial edge has grown blunt and that the U.S. is a consumption-oriented society rather than a global manufacturing giant.
U.A.E.’s One-Trillion-Dollar Investment Plan: A Bet on the Return of Infrastructure
The $1.4 trillion Abu Dhabi investment, which will be disbursed over a ten-year period, naturally invites the question: what will they want to spend it on? Trump must decide whether, as Japanese and German did, to marshal his resources to rejuvenate a decaying infrastructure—America’s highways and airports collapsing from delayed maintenance—or if we wants to use them to establish new industries. How this money is used in coming years, however, could shape the future of American manufacturing and infrastructure.
It has already been hollowed out as a result of the decades that the U.S. has led on technologies. The problem Trump has is American need for foreign investment, against the lust of the US to control tech. The fear of foreign ownership in strategic industries persists, as demonstrated by the decision taken under President Biden to prevent a Japanese steel giant from acquiring an American company.
America’s Investment Deficit: Will Abolishing Corporate Income Taxes Close the Gap?
Trump’s obsession with securing foreign capital reveals a deeper problem in the U.S. economy. Despite a record number of billionaires, America somehow can’t seem to invest in its own infrastructure and industries at the scale necessary to maintain its place in the world. Trump’s tax cuts, in addition to being unaffordable, failed to inspire American investment. This has forced him to look for foreign capital to make up the shortfall.
As America copes with a changing economic reality, how $2 trillion in Arab investment pours into the country poses an opportunity and a challenge. The real effect of these investments will be determined by how adeptly they are put to work rejuvenating American industry, infrastructure, and innovation.
Conclusion: The Road Ahead for America’s Economy
Overall, President Trump’s quest for investment from Arab nations is both a sign of the changing world order, and evidence of how the global economy works. America, former lighouse of industrial might, now needs other countries’ money to compete in the world. Whether this spending will usher in a renaissance in U.S. infrastructure or remake American industry is an open question. The next few years will be crucial in deciding whether Trump’s approach can return the United States to its former economic dominance.
