During a high-profile White House dinner in honor of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), President Donald Trump took a moment to highlight the arrival and star power of global soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo. In a lighthearted remark that drew laughs from the room, Trump joked that his son, Barron Trump, would now “respect him even more” after meeting the legendary footballer. The interaction added a celebrity-driven twist to an evening focused on diplomacy, with world leaders, high-profile guests, and global stars in attendance.
00:27Well, this is a very special occasion, and it is indeed my honor to welcome to the White
00:33House a great friend and a man of leadership, vision, courage, and strength, His Royal Highness
00:40Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
00:47And we had a big day today, a very big day for both countries.
00:53We've gotten to know each other well over the years, and he has become a true partner
00:57for peace and prosperity for our countries and for the world and for peace in the Middle
01:02East, which was a crowning achievement for both of us.
01:07And I just want to say that Crown Prince Mohammed, we're delighted to have you with us at the
01:13White House.
01:14Very special.
01:15Very, very special.
01:20I'd like to also express my gratitude to our wonderful First Lady for organizing this beautiful
01:28evening.
01:29She worked hard on it.
01:30Thank you very much, Melania.
01:31And we're pleased to be joined as well by Vice President J.D. Vance and his magnificent
01:42wife, Usha.
01:45Thank you, J.D. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson and his wife, Kelly.
01:53Thank you, Mike, wherever you may be.
01:56Thank you, Kelly.
01:59Princess Rima.
02:00Thank you, Princess Rima.
02:02Such an incredible representative of your country.
02:08And you really are.
02:09We really appreciate it.
02:10Great job you do.
02:12And members of the Saudi delegation, we want to thank you very much for being with us.
02:18We spent a lot of time with you today in the Cabinet.
02:20You're extremely good negotiators, that I can tell you.
02:24So I want to thank you.
02:25And we have so many other unbelievable dignitaries.
02:28I won't I won't talk too much about you because we'll be here all night.
02:32This room is loaded up with the biggest leaders in the world, business, sports.
02:36You know, my son is a big fan of Ronaldo, wherever Ronaldo is here, Ronaldo and Barron got to
02:48meet him.
02:49And I think he respects his father a little bit more now.
02:51That's the fact that I introduced you.
02:54So I just want to thank you both for being here.
02:56Thank you very much.
02:57Really an honor.
02:58But I want to thank everybody because you do.
03:01You have the biggest business leaders in the world.
03:03You have the biggest leaders politically anywhere in the world.
03:07And I think it's a group that maybe to this extent has never come together quite like this.
03:12I only wish we had about 2000 more seats.
03:16We would have filled every one of them two times over.
03:20But very soon you'll be having that.
03:21And we'll have to do another one in about two years from now.
03:25But we really do.
03:26We appreciate it very much.
03:27It's a special privilege to welcome His Royal Highness to Washington this year as we mark
03:33the 80th anniversary of the first meeting between U.S. President and a Saudi king.
03:38Eight decades ago in 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with the crown prince's own grandfather,
03:47the founder of the Saudi Arabian incredible country.
03:52And that was King Abdul Aziz on the deck of the U.S. Navy cruiser and a beautiful one at that.
04:00It has become known for that meeting all over the world.
04:04And the two became immediate and warm friends.
04:07And in fact, when we were walking down the presidential walk of fame today, I said,
04:12so which one other than Trump, of course, because Trump absolutely is number one in this category,
04:18meaning friend to Saudi Arabia, I said, which is the greatest of the president's friends
04:23of Saudi Arabia?
04:24And I think you said very truly Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
04:28Now, he's a Democrat, so I don't know.
04:32But I understood it.
04:33And it's true.
04:34He's a great friend.
04:35And right now, you have the best friend you've ever had.
04:37But ever since, our countries have been enduring partners.
04:40And together this evening, we're making that partnership closer and stronger than ever before.
04:45And we've never had the relationship, our countries like this.
04:49We had four great years, but things happened today and documents were signed.
04:54And we went through a lot during the first nine months.
04:58And we have a very different Middle East than we had when I first came into office.
05:02Like, I would say, day and night.
05:04As 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.
05:22But this opening up of the new avenues of cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia is really unprecedented.
05:29And on that trip, Saudi Arabia announced that it will invest an incredible $600 billion.
05:35$600 billion.
05:36That means jobs.
05:37That means jobs.
05:38That means jobs.
05:39It's also good for your companies, but I'm only interested in the jobs for your country.
05:43I'm not interested in the profits, but I guess the profits are there too.
05:46But $600 billion in the United States.
05:50And today I said, anyway, you can up that.
05:53And he said, I am going to up that to $1 trillion.
05:56So he's investing $1 trillion into the United States.
06:01And 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.
06:12He said, you know, one year ago, we thought your country was dead.
06:17And now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
06:20We are the hottest country anywhere in the world right now.
06:23So I want to thank you for giving me one of the most effective lines that I have.
06:27And I quote you and I quote some others, but I always put you up at top.
06:31But many people have said that this week.
06:33We're also signing exciting agreements on civil nuclear energy, critical minerals and artificial intelligence numbers that nobody's ever heard of before.
06:42And Jensen, I want to thank you.
06:44You had a great meeting of Nvidia, wherever you may be.
06:47And I want to thank Tim Cook and Apple for all of the money that you're investing in the United States.
06:53They're both investing $600 billion.
06:56And we have numerous other country companies in the room that are likewise investing large sums because they believe in what we are doing and what's taken place.
07:06This miracle that's taken place in the USA.
07:09Together, these will come together.
07:13We're going to have support the many thousands of American jobs that have been created and help solidify the USA and the world leader.
07:21We're really now by far the world leader in technology.
07:24And nobody even questions it.
07:26Advanced manufacturing and other vital industries.
07:29They were saying two, three years ago when the country was really losing business, not gaining business.
07:35That will never be manufacturers again.
07:37We'll never be doing any of these businesses again that are coming back to us in record numbers.
07:42AI plants.
07:43But maybe even most importantly, in a sense, the auto plants are all pouring back into the United States.
07:50And I have to say because of tariffs.
07:52I'll also say because of November 5th, the election.
07:55But because of the tariffs, they're coming back.
07:59We have the head of Ford.
08:00We have the head of General Motors in the room.
08:02And their stock has gone through the roof because what I did with tariffs last week on certain kinds of vehicles.
08:10I won't get into it.
08:11It's called midsize trucks and large trucks.
08:15So I wanted to get into it because their stock went through the roof and they were very happy.
08:20They did not really a hell of a lot of work.
08:23I gave it to them at their request.
08:25And for that, they get a big fat salary.
08:27But more importantly, they create jobs all over the country.
08:30It's been amazing.
08:31And the business you've gotten in the midsize and the large trucks because of what we did with tariffs is incredible.
08:37It's incredible.
08:38So I congratulate both companies and thank you both for being here very much.
08:42And 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.
08:56And 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.
09:07We make the best jets, the best missiles.
09:09We make the best military equipment in the world.
09:12There's nothing even close.
09:14But 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.
09:24And 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 have taken place in about a month from that date.
09:39They were ready to go.
09:40They're not ready to go anymore.
09:41They'd like very much to make a deal with us and they call us and we'll end up probably doing that.
09:46That's Iran.
09:47But when you really think about it, your majesty, I think that this is the best in terms of safety.
09:55Saudi Arabia has never been as safe as it is right now.
09:58You always had a little cloud over your head and sometimes that cloud was very big.
10:02That cloud is not there anymore and we want to keep it that way.
10:05So that's why tonight I'm pleased to announce that we're 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.
10:21And I'm just telling you now for the first time because I wanted to keep a little secret for tonight.
10:26I just heard him say, oh, that's nice.
10:29That's another point you won today.
10:31But and signing a historic strategic defense agreement, which we just signed a little while ago.
10:37So congratulations.
10:38A stronger and more capable alliance will advance the interests of both countries and it will serve the best.
10:50the highest interest of peace.
10:52And we all share in peace.
10:54And we've never had and been so close to truly everlasting peace in the Middle East.
10:59All my life I've heard, oh, peace in the Middle East, but it'll never happen.
11:03We did it.
11:04Now we have to make sure it matures properly and is really as strong as we think it can be.
11:09But we've gotten all good signals.
11:10I want to just thank you for all the help, too.
11:13I want to thank the Crown Prince for the role he played in the transformational peace deal that was achieved last month.
11:22And so many of the other things that happened to end the war in Gaza.
11:26Gaza, while it looks a little bit messy, it has for many, many years.
11:31I will tell you many decades, but it's getting very close to being perfected and people are shocked.
11:38And even the great experts that have gone around criticizing badly every country and every president and everything.
11:45They're all saying that what's taking place in the Middle East is a miracle.
11:49They're just calling it a miracle and we're going to make it a miracle.
11:52And we're very close to doing that.
11:54But as you know, all of the living hostages were returned to their families.
11:59We got all 20, 20 out of 20.
12:01And 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.
12:18The parents of the living would do anything to get their boy back.
12:23And they got him back.
12:24And the parents of the dead wanted them just as much.
12:29It almost seemed as though they wanted them more.
12:32And today, through the efforts of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Marco Rubio and everybody, everybody worked together.
12:40We worked so hard together.
12:42Two more bodies were brought back and were up to almost the full count.
12:47I think we're too short right now.
12:49And a lot of work has been done by Hamas.
12:53And a lot of a lot of people said they wouldn't be doing that.
12:55But they did do it.
12:56And the bodies have been delivered to the families, to the mothers, to the fathers.
13:02And at least they can be in peace.
13:05It's amazing.
13:06It was a miserable period of time.
13:08We have two more to go.
13:09And I think we'll be getting them also.
13:13Not easy.
13:14That was not easy.
13:15Not an easy situation.
13:16I've met with many of those parents.
13:18And what a time.
13:19What a time they've had.
13:21But we also want to thank all of the people living in Gaza, the residents of Gaza.
13:27And they've, as you know, begun to move back to their homes.
13:31And a lot more safety, they said today, a lot more safety than they've ever had before.
13:36It was a rough neighborhood, to put it mildly.
13:40And a lot of progress has been made with respect to Gaza and just about everything else we touch.
13:45Just yesterday, the United Nations Security Council formally adopted my peace plan and officially endorsed the Board of Peace.
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