TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Hosts a Dinner for Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, 11.18.25
[Video]
President Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. What an honor. Well, this is a very special occasion and it is, indeed, my honor to welcome to the White House a great friend and a man of leadership, vision, courage, and strength, His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And we had a big day today, a very big day for both countries. We've gotten to know each other well over the years and he has become a true partner for peace and prosperity for our countries and for the world, and for peace in the Middle East, which was a crowning achievement for both of us. And I just want to say that, uh, Crown Prince Mohammed, we're delighted to have you with us at the White House.
Very special, very, very special. I'd like to also express my gratitude to our wonderful First Lady for organizing this beautiful evening. She worked hard on it. Thank you very much, Melania. Thank you. And we're pleased to be joined as well by Vice President J.D. Vance and his magnificent wife, Usha. Thank you. Thank you, J.D. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and his wife, Kelly. Thank you, Mike, wherever you may be. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. Princess Reema. Thank you, Princess Reema. Such an incredible representative of your country. And you really are. We really appreciate it, great job you do. And members of the Saudi delegation, we want to thank you very much for being with us. We spent a lot of time with you today in the Cabinet.
You're extremely good negotiators, that I can tell you. So I want to thank you. And we have so many other unbelievable dignitaries. I won't, I won't talk too much about you because we'll be here all night. This room is loaded up with the biggest leaders in the world, business, sports. You know, my son is a big fan of Ronaldo. Wherever Ronaldo is here, Ronaldo. And Barron got to meet him and, uh, I think he respects his father a little bit more now, just the fact that I introduced you. So I just want to thank you both for being here. Thank you very much, really an honor. But I wanna thank everybody because, uh, you do, you have the biggest business leaders in the world.
You have the biggest leaders politically anywhere in the world. And I think it's a group that maybe, uh, to this extent has never come together quite like this. I only wish we had about, uh, 2,000 more seats. We would've filled every one of them two times over. But very soon you'll be having that and we'll have to do another one in about two years from now. But, uh, we really do, we appreciate it very much. It's a special privilege to welcome his Royal Highness to Washington this year as we mark the 80th anniversary of the first meeting between U.S. President and a Saudi king. Eight decades ago, in 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with the Crown Prince's own grandfather, the founder of the Saudi Arabian incredible country.
And that was King Abdulaziz on the deck of the U.S. Navy Cruiser and a beautiful one at that. And it's become known for that meeting all over the world. The two became immediate and warm friends. And, in fact, when we were walking down the Presidential Walk of Fame today, I said, "So which one," other than Trump, of course, because Trump, absolutely, is number one in this category, meaning friend to Saudi Arabia, I said, "Which is the greatest of the President's friends of Saudi Arabia? And I think you said, very truly, "Franklin Delano Roosevelt." Now, he's a Democrat, so, uh, I don't know. But I understood it. And it's true. He was a great friend, and right now you have the best friend you've ever had. But ever since, our countries have been enduring partners, and together this evening, we're making that partnership closer and stronger than ever before.
And, uh, we've never had the relationship, our countries, like this. We had four- four great years, but, um, things happened today and documents were signed. And we went through a lot during the first nine months. And we have a very different Middle East than we had when I first came into office. Like, I would say day and night. As I saw during my wonderful visit to the Kingdom in May, with the Crown Prince's help, Saudi Arabia has made extraordinary strides and grown into an economic engine and really a modern-day miracle. An amazing transformation and all for the good. This opening up of the new avenues of cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia is really unprecedented.
And on that trip, Saudi Arabia announced that it will invest an incredible $600 billion, that means jobs, that means jobs, it's also good for your companies, but I'm only interested in the jobs for your country. I'm not interested in the profits, but I guess the profits are there too. But $600 billion in the United States. And today, I said, "Any way you can up that?" And he said, "I'm going to up that to $1 trillion." So he is investing $1 trillion into the United States. And when I was in Saudi Arabia, he looked at me and I've used his name all over the place because he was the first to say it. But a lot of people have said it after he said, "You know, one year ago we thought your country was dead, and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world." We are the hottest country anywhere in the world right now.
So I want to thank you for giving me one of the most effective lines that I have, and I quote you and I quote some others, but I always put you up at top. But many people have said that. This week we're also signing exciting agreements on civil nuclear energy, critical minerals and artificial intelligence, numbers that nobody's ever heard of before. And Jensen, I want to thank you, we had a great meeting, of Nvidia, wherever you may be, and I want to thank Tim Cook and Apple for all of the money that you're investing in the United States. They're both investing $600 billion and we have numerous other country, companies in the room that are likewise investing, uh, large sums because they believe in what we are doing and what's taken place.
This miracle that's taken place in the USA. Together these will come together. We're gonna have support the many thousands of American jobs that have been created and help solidify the USA the world leader, we're really now by far the world leader in technology, and nobody even questions it, advanced manufacturing and other vital industries. They were saying two, three years ago when the country was really losing business, not gaining business that we'll never be manufacturers again, we'll never be doing any of these businesses again, that are coming back to us in record numbers, AI plants, but maybe even most importantly in a sense, uh, the auto plants, they're all pouring back into the United States.
And I have to say, because of tariffs, I'll also say because of November 5th, the election. But uh, because of the tariffs, they're coming back. We have the head of Ford, we have the head of General Motors in the room, and their stock has gone through the roof because what I did with tariffs last week on certain kinds of, uh, vehicles, I won't get into it. It's called midsize trucks and large trucks. So I wanted to get into it because their stock went through the roof and uh, they were very happy. They did not really a hell of a lot of work. I gave it to 'em at their request. And for that, they get a big fat salary. But more importantly, they create jobs all over the country. It's been amazing. And the business you've gotten in the midsize and the large trucks because of what we did with tariffs is incredible.
It's incredible. So I congratulate both companies, and thank you both for being here very much. And as we announced in May, Saudi Arabia is also making an enormous commitment to building up its own defense capabilities with the largest arms purchase in history, nearly $142 billion worth of American military equipment and services. And as I've said many times, and we've demonstrated, uh, just, uh, a short while ago, but quite a bit, uh, we make the best military equipment in the world by far. We make the best jets, the best missiles. We make the best military equipment in the world, there's nothing even close. But this will mark and make both of our nations safer and cement the Kingdom's role as a key force for stability and security in the Middle East.
And, uh, they are, I think right now I can say with what we did with our beautiful B-2 bombers going in and obliterating a very serious nuclear threat, which would've taken place in about a month from that date, they were ready to go, they're not ready to go anymore. They'd like very much to make a deal with us, and they call us and we'll end up probably doing that, that's Iran. But when you, uh, really think about it, Your Majesty, I think, uh, that this is the best in terms of safety. Saudi Arabia has never been as safe as it is right now. You always had a little cloud over your head, and sometimes that cloud was very big. That cloud is not there anymore, and we want to keep it that way.
So that's why tonight I'm pleased to announce that we are taking our military cooperation to even greater heights by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, which is, uh, something that is, uh, very important to them. And I'm just telling you now for the first time, because I wanted to keep a little secret for tonight. I just heard him say, "Ooh, that's nice." [Laughter] That's another point you won today. But, and signing a historic strategic defense agreement, which we just signed a little while ago. So congratulations. It's [Inaudible] [Applause] A stronger and more capable alliance will advance the interests of both countries, and it will serve the highest interest of peace.
And we all share in peace. And we've never had and been so close to truly everlasting peace in the Middle East. All my life, I've heard, "Oh, peace in the Middle East, but it'll never happen." We did it. Now we have to make sure it matures properly and is really as strong as we think it can be. But we've gotten all good signals. I wanna just thank you for all the help too. I wanna thank the Crown Prince for the role he played in the transformational peace deal that was, uh, achieved last month, and so many of the other things that happened to end the war in Gaza. Uh, Gaza, while it looks a little bit messy, it has for many, many years (laughs), I will tell you, many decades, but it's getting very close to being, uh, perfected.
And people are shocked. And, uh, even the great experts that have gone around criticizing badly every country and every president, and everything, they're all saying that what's taking place in the Middle East is a miracle. They're just calling it a miracle, and we're gonna make it a miracle. And we're very close to doing that. But as you know, all of the living hostages were returned to their families. We got all 20, 20 out of 20. And uh, likewise, uh, this sounds terrible, but the parents, uh, of the dead people, young men, mostly young men, almost all young men, they wanted those bodies back as much as the parents of the living.
The parents of the living would do anything to get their boy back, and they got him back. And the parents of the dead wanted them just as much. It almost seemed as though they wanted them more. And today, through the efforts of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Marco Rubio, and everybody, everybody worked together. We worked so hard together. Uh, two more bodies were brought back and we're up to almost the full count. I think we're two short right now. And, uh, a lot of work has been done by Hamas. And a lot of, a lot of people said they wouldn't be doing that, but they did do it. And, uh, the bodies have been delivered to the families, to the mothers, to the fathers, and, uh, at least they can be in peace.
It's amazing. It was a miserable period of time. We have two more to go and I think we'll be, uh, getting them also.Not easy. That was not easy, not an easy situation. And I've met with many of those parents and what a time, what time they've had. But we al- also wanna thank all of the people living in Gaza, the residents of Gaza. And, uh, they're, they've, as you know, begun to move back to their homes and a lot more safety. They said today, a lot more safety than they've ever had before. It was a rough neighborhood to put it mildly. And a lot of progress has been made with respect to Gaza and just about everything else we touch. Just yesterday, the United Nations Security Council formally adopted my peace plan and officially endorsed the Board of Peace. This is a board like no other. It will have the heads of major countries, I think all of the major countries. I hope Your Highness will be on the board. You'll accept, I hope. But the Board of Peace will be something that's never even been thought of before.
And it's covering Gaza, but it'll end up covering large portions of the world. And I was honored to be chosen the chair of that Board of Peace. And I think you'll see something that nobody's ever seen before in terms of the status of the board. There will never be a board like the board that we're gonna be announcing. Everybody wants to be on the board and, uh, it'll end up being quite a large board because it'll be the heads of every major country. And, uh, the United Nations passed it, uh, I guess unanimously, you can say. Uh, China, which was against it, uh, took a pass, didn't vote against it. And Russia, which was against it, didn't vote against it. So we appreciate it because one, one negative vote and it doesn't happen.
So people were shocked to see that it was, uh, approved. And, uh, that was a great honor. It's a great honor for me, I will tell you. I think it's something like nobody's ever even imagined. So it's called the Board of Peace and watch for it because it's gonna do some fantastic things. And I know we're both deeply committed to an enduring ceasefire. It grows into the beautiful lasting piece and, uh, we've got things going at, uh, numbers and far ahead of schedule that nobody thought was possible. So your Royal Highness, just as my predecessors and so many of the people that you know and love from a long time ago, they bonded with the U.S. and Saudi relationship, which was forged 80 years ago.
You and I are strengthening and renewing the alliance, I believe, to levels that were far greater than what they had even 80 years ago, frankly. And we pray that we will be celebrated by our own descendants some days for this incredible relationship that's been built between the United States of America and Saudi Arabia. Someday, they maybe will talk about us as being two wonderful men. Forget about great, wonderful is okay, but two wonderful men that did tremendous work for their countries. And that bond is very important. Our friendship and blessings, uh, to America, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to the world stand out and will always stand out to me. So I look forward to working with you and will be, uh, here for three and a quarter years.
For the Trump, that's like an eternity. You know? For somebody else, that doesn't sound long, but, uh, we love doing it. We love, you know, we have an expression, make America great again, and that's what we're doing beyond what anyone even thought possible. So I just wanna thank you for being a very big part of it. And I wanna thank you for a $1 trillion investment and contribution toward our country. That's a lot of jobs. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please. Thank you, my friend.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud: Thank you. Well, it's too hard to speak after Mr. President. No one speak better other than him. But first of all, I will start with thank you, Mr. President, for the warm and great welcome that we have today. Uh, we feel home, and this relation started around close to nine decades ago, uh, with Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz who established the modern Saudi Arabia. Also, I've known that, um, America is almost celebrating 250 years of establishment. And also in two years, we will celebrate in Saudi Arabia, 300 years of establishing Saudi Arabia. We've been since the last nine decades, uh, working together in many areas. During the World War II, we was, was a major supplier for oil during the Cold War, countering extremism, terrorism.
But during that time, we've been also working in a lot of economical opportunities. But today, it's special day. We think the horizon of the economical cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, it's bigger and wider many in many area. We've been signing a lot of agreement that's gonna open the door to develop the relation deeper, uh, in many areas and we're gonna work on it. We believe the opportunities is huge, so we're gonna focus on implementation and keep increasing the opportunities between our both, uh, uh, countries. So thank you again, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you very much.
bin Salman Al Saud: And also, before I come here, uh, uh, someone told me that there isn't some of the bidding sites that they are bidding on me wearing, uh, black suits. And if you bet me wearing black suits, coming here with the black suits, they're gonna get almost [Inaudible]. So I want to tell them, sorry, you lose the bet. [Laughs] Maybe next time. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you.
Trump: Thank you very much.