President Trump and the First Lady Participate in a Dinner with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and First Lady Melania Trump, accompanied by the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ram. 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 Crowned 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, 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 Rima. Thank you. Princess Rima. 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 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 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 want to thank everybody, because 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 to this extent has never come together quite like this. I only wish we had about 2,000 more seats. We would have 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 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 and 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 Abdul Aziz on the deck of the US 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. He's a Democrat, so 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 we've never had the relationship our countries like this. We had four great years, but 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 am going to up that to $1 trillion. So he's investing $1 trillion. 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 has ever heard of before. And Jensen, I want to thank you. You 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 companies in the room that are likewise investing 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 going to have support the many thousands of American jobs that have been created and help solidify the USA and 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, 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 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 vehicles, I won't get into it. It's called mid sized trucks and large trucks. So I wanted to get into it because their stock went through the roof and they were very happy. They did not really a hell of a lot of work. I gave it to them 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 just a short while ago, but quite a bit, 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 they are, I think, right now, I can say with what we did with our beautiful B2 bombers going in and obliterating a very serious nuclear threat which would have 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 really think about it, your Majesty, I think 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 something that is 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, oh, that's nice. 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 at South Korea. 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 will 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 want to just thank you for all the help, too. I want to thank the Crown Prince for the role he played in the transformational peace deal that was achieved last month and so many of the other things that happened to end the war in Gaza. Gaza, while it looks a little bit messy, it has for many, many years, I will tell you, many decades. But it's getting very close to being perfected, and people are shocked. And 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 going to 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 likewise, this sounds terrible, but the parents 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. Two more bodies were brought back and were up to almost the full count. I think we're too short right now, and a lot of work has been done by Hamas, and a lot of people said they wouldn't be doing that, but they did do it. And the bodies have been delivered to the families, to the mothers, to the fathers, and 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 getting them also. Not easy. That was not easy. Not an easy situation. I've met with many of those parents, and what a time. What a time they've had. But we also want to thank all of the people living in Gaza, the residents of Gaza, and 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 will 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 has ever seen before in terms of the status of the board. There will never be a board like the board that we're going to be announcing. Everybody wants to be on the board. And it'll end up being quite a large board because it'll be the heads of every major country. And the United nations passed it, I guess unanimously. You can say China, which was against it, 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 negative vote and it doesn't happen. So people were shocked to see that was approved. And 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 going to do some fantastic things. And I know we're both deeply committed to an enduring ceasefire. It grows into the beautiful, lasting peace. And we've got things going at 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 US 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. 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 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 we'll be 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 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 want to thank you for being a very big part of it and I want to thank you for a $1 trillion investment and contribution toward our country. That's a lot of jobs. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank.

Well, it's too hard to speak after Mr. President. No one speak better than him. But first of all I will start with thank you Mr. President for the warm and great welcome that we have today. We feel home and this relation started around close to nine decades ago with Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz who established the modern Saudi Arabia. Also I've known that America is almost celebrating 250 years of establishment. And also in two years we will celebrate in Saudi Arabia 300 years of establishing Saudi Saudi Arabia. We've been since the last nine decades working together in many areas. During the World War II, we was a major supplier for oil during the Cold War countering extremism tourism. But during that time we've been also working on a lot of economical opportunities. But today it's a special day. We think the horizon of the economical cooperation between Saudi Arabia and esoteric America, it's bigger and wider in many areas. We've been signing a lot of agreement that going to open the door to develop the relation deeper in many areas and we're going to work on it. We believe the opportunities is huge. So we're going to focus on implementation and keep increasing the opportunities between our both countries. So thank you again, Mr. President.

Thank you very much.

And also before I come here, someone told me that there isn't some of the bidding sites that they are bidding on me wearing black suits. And if you bid me wearing black suits and coming here with the black suits they're going to get almost 17x. So I want to tell them sorry, you lose the bet, maybe next time. So thank you Mr. President.

Thank you very much. It.