Trump in Riyadh: Saudis shift the storyline

Arab News

25-05-2025

https://arab.news/rbyxm
As US President Donald Trump's plane descended toward Riyadh on May 13, escorted by Saudi F-15 fighter jets, preparations on the ground evoked a quiet cultural confidence. Across the tarmac stretched the lavender ceremonial carpet, officially adopted in 2021, inspired by the desert khuzama flower and bordered with the geometric patterns of the UNESCO-inscribed traditional sadu weaving. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 'the visionary leader who never sleeps,' as Trump described him, welcomed his guest into the reception hall, where Saudi coffee was served in traditional Arabian style. And within two days, perceptions built up over decades began to shift.
Riyadh was once again Trump's first foreign trip in office, this time coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the 1945 Quincy meeting between King Abdulaziz and President Franklin Roosevelt. Back in 2017, Trump's first summit in Riyadh had introduced a new political chemistry between a Saudi leadership with an ambitious vision and an outsider American administration driven more by deal-making than by bureaucratic routine.
The 2025 meeting, however, took place between two well-acquainted partners, at a rare moment of symmetry: an American president returning to power after a sweeping victory, and a young Saudi leader who is the architect of regional transformation and the subject of global fascination, thanks to a vision that repositioned his country as a rising force on the global stage.
While analysts were preoccupied with the headlines of political understandings, investment deals, and bilateral economic agreements, the deeper meaning of this visit lay in how the Saudis chose to present themselves, and how the Americans responded.
For decades, visits by Western, especially American, leaders to the region followed a familiar script: security cooperation in exchange for energy stability, filtered through a condescending outsider's gaze and quiet assumptions of superiority. But this time, something fundamental had changed. The inspiring Saudi reality on the ground turned old expectations on their head and signaled a new way of seeing.
The visit became an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to reintroduce itself to the world through its most authentic symbols, to reshape the storyline through which it has long been seen — the lavender carpet; dallah pots pouring Saudi coffee into finjan cups; Arabian horses escorting the presidential motorcade through Al-Yamamah Palace; and the samri dance that greeted Trump in At-Turaif, the UNESCO-listed district in Diriyah, birthplace of the Saudi state that restored the Arabian Peninsula's central role after a millennium away from the geopolitical spotlight.
This was a live act of meaning-making from a nation that knows its own cultural weight. On air, in real time, the Kingdom projected a narrative of itself as confident, visionary, ambitious, and economically powerful. A country shaping how it wants to be seen. Western media captured the symbolism with awe, while Saudi digital majlises erupted with pride. The message was unmistakable: Welcome to the new Saudi Arabia, a nation proud of its roots, open to the world, and carrying a heritage unfolding toward the future.
Beyond symbolism, the perception shift was clearest in Trump's own speech. In one of its most striking moments, he delivered a sharp critique of 'Western interventionists ... giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs ... intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand.' Then he declared that 'the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not built by so-called nation-builders, or neocons, or liberal nonprofits. They were built by the people of this region themselves, developing their own sovereign countries, pursuing their own visions, and charting their own destinies.'
The 2025 Riyadh Summit marks a new chapter in the Saudi-US story, one defined by mutual respect and a new understanding of the region from within, rather than through borrowed frameworks.
Dr. Hatem Alzahrani
This echoed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's 2018 remarks at the Future Investment Initiative, two years after Vision 2030 was launched: 'The new Europe is the Middle East' and that achieving this vision is 'the Saudis' war, my war personally. I do not want to die without seeing the Middle East at the forefront of the world. This goal will be achieved 100 percent.'
Some at the time saw those words as a visionary promise still far from reach. Even Trump acknowledged that: 'Critics doubted whether what you achieved at home was even possible.' But what once sounded like a distant ambition is now an undeniable reality, and the US leader's remarks were a direct response to that.
Moreover, these remarks marked a shift in how Washington perceives its relationship with the region. They pushed back against the 'Western savior' narrative, returned credit to local agency, and acknowledged that real change is now coming from within. The outcomes of the visit reflected this shift as well, culminating in a strategic economic partnership covering vital sectors.
For years, the Middle East figured in American discourse as a problem to fix, a threat to contain, or a place waiting to be saved. These portrayals were largely imagined constructs, shaped by entrenched Western frameworks built on outdated assumptions and ideological baggage. As historian Zachary Lockman reminds us in 'Contending Visions of the Middle East,' much of the Western scholarly engagement with the region was historically tied to the priorities of foreign powers, rather than a genuine intellectual quest for understanding. The Middle East was treated as the 'Other,' an object to be studied and explained in service of Western strategy.
Now, the lens is changing. The developmental models taking shape in the wider region are not imported templates, but strategies born from lived experience and cultural depth. Now reality leads perception, after decades in which perception shaped reality. Thanks to countries like Saudi Arabia, the region is reclaiming its voice as a fully engaged actor, redefining itself from within what was long considered an 'exotic' or 'mysterious' part of the world.
Saudi Arabia is redrawing its global image with clarity of vision and tangible results. Through self-assessment, data-driven governance, and large-scale reforms, the Kingdom has done in a few years what Trump called 'a modern miracle, the Arabian way.' This shift echoes a broader global rebalancing. As Fareed Zakaria outlines in 'The Age of Revolutions,' we are witnessing the rise of 'new powers,' countries that combine bold economic reform with cultural self-confidence and geopolitical ambition. Saudi Arabia stands as a leading example of these emerging global actors.
With strategic clarity, Saudi Arabia is reclaiming its place in the global imagination, not as a petro-state anomaly, but a civilizational force rooted in the Arabian Peninsula. For centuries, this land served as a crossroads of trade and a hub of cultural exchange. It gave rise to a language that became a global medium of learning and philosophy. From its historic cities, the people of Arabia, alongside peoples from Asia, Africa, and Europe, helped synthesize ancient knowledge and forge new ideas in science, law, literature, and spirituality. Vision 2030 calls back to this legacy as a strategic resource, reinvesting it to forge global partnerships, articulate a confident Saudi identity, and position the Kingdom as a key player in shaping the future.
In that spirit, the 2025 Riyadh Summit marks a new chapter in the Saudi-US story, one defined by mutual respect and a new understanding of the region from within, rather than through borrowed frameworks. 'All of humanity will soon be amazed at what they will see right here in this geographic center of the world and the spiritual heart of its greatest faiths,' Trump declared in his Riyadh address. It was a shift in perception, a recognition that the West will now understand the region through its own successful models. And at the center of those models stands Saudi Arabia as a force actively shaping the narratives of tomorrow.
• Dr. Hatem Alzahrani is a writer, cultural adviser, and academic specializing in Middle Eastern cultures. He holds an MA from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University. He is a member of the International Arts Advisory Committee at the Middle East Institute.
X: @HoYalieOfArabia