Brief summary

The text discusses President Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East, including meetings with the Emir of Qatar, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and the President of Turkey. Trump highlights major business deals and investments, including a record-breaking order from Boeing and General Electric. He also discusses the situation in Yemen, Syria, and Iran, expressing a desire for peace and diplomacy rather than military action. Trump praises the leadership in the region and emphasizes the importance of strong relationships with allies in the Middle East. He also touches on domestic issues like the state of the U.S. transportation system and the upcoming presidential election, claiming a “mandate” from his supporters.

Main body

First watch an air show that will be spectacular from our friend, the Emir. He’s done a great job, done a great job. And I’ve met such great people. And as you know that we’re trying to give Yemen a chance and we’re going to give Syria a chance with Yemen. They have a tremendous Houthi problem. I believe that’s a problem for them. You know, you never really know. It’s a tricky part of the world. But we were asked to stop firing at the Houthis. And that’s something that they’ve never asked because they’re tough and they’re good fighters and all. But they’re not going to be blowing ships out of the water anymore. So, that’s what we wanted. And we’ll see how that works. But their emissaries were very, very strong on it.

00:00:46

So, that’s giving. That’s a good thing for Yemen because they want to try. They’re trying to help themselves also. And we want them to get along with Saudi Arabia because that’s been a big fight. And the other, of course, is Syria. We took out the sanctions. And that’s been, I didn’t even realize, it’s been many, many years that they’ve had sanctions. And as you know, there was a very big change at the top. And I thought that we have to give them a chance. They really have no chance with the sanctions. They were very biting. They were top of the line. Nobody could even deal with them. You couldn’t even, you couldn’t make a phone call to them. Syria. So we did that. And I met the new leader of the country.

00:01:28

And he’s got a strong past. I’d be very nice. He’s got a strong past. But I liked him a lot. I think he’ll be a great representative. And we’ll see. You’re going to have to have a strong past to put that one around. You cannot be a weak person. If you’re a weak person, we would just be wasting time. So he’s a strong guy. I thought he was good. And let’s see what happens. But we’re going to give him a fighting chance by taking off the sanctions. So, we’ve actually been praised for that. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was very strong. Please do that. He wanted it done. President of Turkey wanted it done. President Erdogan called me, said, ‘Is there any way you could do that?

00:02:13

Because if you don’t do that, they don’t have a chance.’ And so. I did it and it’s actually been very popular. The Amir liked it a lot. It’s been very, very popular. So let’s see what happens. But it’s my honor to have done it. And with that, we’re surrounded by the some of the greatest business people in the world. We just had a tremendous order from Boeing. This is Boeing, and this is General Electric, and General Electric. I hear makes the best large airplane engine in the world by not even a contest. Maybe I’ll have to change my engines one day on my plane because they’re not General Electric. But, you know, it’s one of those things. But I hear you make the best engines in the world, Larry. Larry’s.

00:02:58

Somehow his people at General Electric. First of all, it’s one of the greatest turnarounds that you’ll ever see in a company because when you took it over, it was I want to be respectful. General Electric was in trouble to put it, I would say, right, to put it mildly. And now it’s a hot company doing great. And it’s. I would imagine the hottest thing is what’s happened with the engine division because this engine is incredible. Would you like to say a couple of words, Larry, about that? Because he watches, when he sees Boeing, he gets, he’s very excited because he supplies, I guess, for the most part, the engines. Would you like to say something? Sure. Well, Mr. President, thank you. And it’s an honor to be here.

00:03:40

We’re thrilled about the commitment that Qatar Airways has made to both Boeing and GE Aerospace with the largest wide-body order really in our company’s history. We’re 400 engines, both our GENX, which powers the 787, the fastest-selling high-thrust engine in history, and our new 9X will power the 777X, which will be the largest commercial engine in the world. Will that be the same engine other than size, or is it different? It’s a step forward and a generation forward as well. So even beyond? Yes. The large one? Very much so. That’s great. And we think that really helps both Boeing and GE Aerospace continue to support not only our investment in domestic manufacturing, but in turn everything that we’re doing to drive the $75 billion annual trade surplus that the aerospace industry enjoys in the U.

00:04:30

S. today. So we’re excited. I know Kelly and the Boeing team have been great partners. But, Botter, our thanks to you for your trust and your commitment to both GE Aerospace and Boeing. We’re gratified. Yeah, thank you very much. Kelly, go ahead, please. Well, Mr. President, first of all, thank you for your support. It’s a major order for us. All of these aircraft will be built in the United States, creating a significant number of jobs, and I know that’s a key mission of yours, and this order will help us accomplish that. Partnership with GE has been great. They do power exclusively our engines, and they’re doing a great job here, and we’re very proud. Pleased to be selected by Qatar for this largest aircraft, wide-body aircraft order in the history of Boeing.

00:05:19

Major, major accomplishment for us. And thanks to the administration for your support. That’s the largest order you’ve ever had. So one of the largest orders in history, but it almost has to be, if it’s the largest order you’ve had, has to be pretty close to the largest order ever made, right? Yeah, that’s correct. And you also, Boeing also got the jet fighter. We selected Boeing for the jet fighter, the state of the art, highest level. It’s an amazing. Looking at a plane if it functions as well as it looks, I think we’re gonna have a big winner, but we’re also looking at some additional jet fighters. We have some really good ones that we have, uh, we’re taking a look at. It’s a strong look from one of your competitors, I must say.

00:06:01

And we’re doing something very special, but it’s a special country, uh, you know. We were losing the Middle East because the past administration didn’t handle the relationship properly, didn’t show the kind of respect that they deserve. And me, I have a lot of respect and I have a lot of liking. I like the Crown Prince a lot. I’ve known him a long time in Saudi Arabia. And the Emir is fantastic. And we’re going to another country in a little while. UAE, a fantastic man, fantastic leader. And they have great leadership talents in this part of the world. And that’s why they’re. Doing so well and you probably read today the story about Iran has sort of agreed to the terms-they’re not going to make I call it in a friendly way, nuclear dust.

00:06:53

We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran, and we’ve been strong; I want them to succeed, I want them to end up being a great country frankly, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon that’s the only thing-it’s very simple, it’s very simple it’s not like I have to give you 30 pages worth of details there’s only one sentence: they can’t have a nuclear weapon. And I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this. There’s two steps; there’s a very, very nice step and there’s a violent step. The violence like people haven’t seen before, and I hope we’re not gonna have to do this. I don’t wanna do the second step. Some people do, many people do. I don’t want to do that step.

00:07:35

So we’ll see what happens. But we’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace. And if we do that, it’ll be fantastic. And for this country in particular, because you’re right next door, you’re a stone’s throw away. Not even, right? You’re a foot away. You can walk right into Iran. Other countries are much further away, so probably it’s not quite the same level of danger. We are going to protect this country. It’s a very special place with a special royal family. And the head of the royal family is two heads of the royal family, really, if you think. Great people. And they’re going to be protected by the United States of America. And I think we’re not going to have to do it because I believe very strongly in peace through strength.

00:08:24

Now, we just gave out in the budget a $1 trillion. Budget, which is the biggest we’ve ever done, a trillion dollars. Never, never came close to a number like that. We’d be at 800 it would be at 800 billion would be at maybe 900, 9 or 10. We never got anywhere close to a trillion but we’re doing it. Hopefully, we will not have to use these weapons. We make the greatest weapons in the world. We make the greatest fighter jets. We make the greatest, I guess Larry would know better than anybody, but we we make the greatest planes in the world, the greatest missiles and defense systems. The Patriot system is the best, acknowledged to be this. This isn’t from me. And we have a lot of it now.

00:09:08

It’s under order. And we’re coming up with new systems. And we’re coming up with a new system of drones. Because drones are really, if you look at the war that’s going on, it’s horrible. But we are watching it very closely. And drones really seem to be taking over that war. And so I hope you’re gonna come up with some nice inexpensive engine for a drone so that we don’t have to spend so much. I asked one of the companies, I said, I want a lot of drones. And in the case of Iran, they’d make a good drone and they make them for $35, $40,000. So I said to this company, ‘I wanna see,’ they came in. Two weeks later with a drone that cost $41 million.

00:09:48

I said, that’s not what I’m talking about, $41 million. I’m talking about something for $35,000, $40,000 where you send thousands of them out. And that’s a great way. And they’re very good, too, and fast and deadly. Horrible, actually, when you look at what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine. The drone is killing tremendous numbers of people. You hide behind a tree and the drone comes down and it circles you with fire. You don’t have a chance. The tree comes down also, by the way. It’s so intense. I mean, you see these trees being knocked down like they’re being sawed down by a top-of-the-line timberman. Like, you know who, Sean? Duffy, do you know that Sean Duffy, the head of the Transportation Department, who’s working right now on the airports and getting a system because Biden didn’t do a thing for four years and Pete Buttigieg was the head and he goes bicycle into work.

00:10:41

He takes a bicycle to work. Can you believe he’s running the biggest air system in the world and he takes a bicycle to work? And they say he’s going to run for president. I don’t see it. Who knows, right? But I don’t see it. But when I look at what they’ve done, it’s so horrible what they’ve done. And the work they did do, they wasted billions of dollars in trying to hook up air systems to copper. And they tried to hook up copper to glass. And the glass doesn’t work with the copper. And they had 30 ,000 different contractors doing 30 ,000 jobs. And when they put it all together, they spent billions of dollars.

00:11:21

it didn’t even come close to working and we’re going to be given out a brand new system it’s very important we’ll have the best system and and we think we know who that system is but we have a lot of a lot of bidding but we want one check we want a unified system we don’t have 5 ,000 contractors in all different places, some digging ditches and some not doing ditches because they want to go by satellite. Satellite seems to be the way to go. So we’re going to be giving that out pretty soon. But what people don’t know about Sean, because I mentioned lumberjacks, that Sean. You probably didn’t know this. I’m not talking about this, Sean. This, Sean, no. This is a different Sean. Sean Duffy, the head of transportation.

00:12:03

He’s a great Sean, though, I have to tell you. But Sean Duffy was the world champion for five years, climbing trees and down, up and down, world champion. So that’s what you call a serious lumberjack. And he’s doing a fantastic job, too, a really respected guy and a terrific guy. When somebody’s a champion, he’s the world champion for a long time. He came down when you come down those trees coming down at a rapid he said that started getting you back You will often break your back You miss a shot and youre coming down a lot faster than the human body was meant to come down But hes doing a fantastic job at transportation But this has been a very historic trip I watched some of the people talking about it and even what I would perceive as enemies of ours people that are not fair from the press are saying its been amazing Wereve raised trillions of dollars in investments Theres never been anything like it.

00:13:07

And just to finish, we have a country that now has, I think, Howard; we can say that at least $10 trillion of investment and potential investment. And if the past administration did a half a trillion dollars. It was like a lot. But we did it in two months because it’s actually a little more than three months. But I always say the first month I had to get a little bit acclimated. So I didn’t really do this the first, but when we started; so we’ve really been doing it, Susie, right, for two months. So in two months, we’re going to have over 10 trillion dollars. Nobody’s ever come. No country’s ever come close to that; no country has. And I want to thank the Amir because he put up a lot in terms of investment.

00:13:55

It could amount to 2 million, 3 million, maybe even 4 million jobs in the United States. And more importantly, it’s really important stuff. It’s tremendous refining capabilities. It’s capabilities for very high-end. AI is a big subject. And it’s a big subject over here, too. I always say, what are you investing in? It seems one thing everybody seems to have in common is A. I. So I don’t know if that’s a good thing or maybe you shouldn’t do it because too many people are doing it. Or maybe you should follow the crowd, fellas. OK, so you’re going to figure it out. We have a man who’s here who has been unbelievable. Scott Bassett, who’s our Secretary of the Treasury, and who’s so respected when he speaks on television.

00:14:40

It’s like everyone just says, ‘oh, OK.’ I had somebody at the end, they said, ‘well, Scott Besson said.’ I said, ‘well, that’s pretty good, Scott.’ So I’m a believer. I’m a believer. But when he speaks, the markets really listen. And the big thing is that we have, to me, the most important thing of all is that forget about the recent stock market being so good. Much more importantly, we have hundreds of different big companies pouring into America now, creating jobs like we’ve never seen before. Now, the bad news is that it takes a little while for that to, you know, when you build your factory and it takes a year and a half, two years, and they’re going to build them very fast and they don’t need financing.

00:15:20

That’s the nice part. They don’t need any financing. They have plenty of it. But they’re building factories at levels we’ve never seen anything like it. And these are, you know, 10 billion, 12 billion, 50 billion. I said, how do you spend 50 billion? on a factory. We have the chip companies coming in from Taiwan. We have Jensen, as you know, coming in with 600 billion. We have actually the biggest company of them all, you know all about it, coming in. That was a big one, Mr. Wei. I said, Mr. Wei, you’re a smart man, aren’t you? I never met him. And I said, because I understand you control 99% of the chips. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, I do. I said, that’s that’s pretty good. I said, is there any way of breaking that grip?

00:16:09

They said it would take you many years. So I said, you know what? Can’t beat him. You join him. But he’s going to be building the biggest factory anywhere in the world in Arizona and spending over 200 billion dollars. And we have Apple, as you know, it’s coming in. And I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, Tim, you’re my friend. I treated you very good. You’re coming in with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India if you want to take care of India because India is the highest, one of the highest tariff nations in the world. It’s very hard to sell into India.

00:16:47

And they’ve offered us a deal where basically they’re willing to literally charge us no tariff. So we go from the highest tariff, you couldn’t do business in India, we’re not even a top 30 in India because the tariff is so high, to a point where they have actually told us, I assume you too, Scott, you were working on that also, that there will be no tariff, right? Would you say that’s the difference? They’re the highest and now they’re saying no tariff. But I said to Tim, I said, Tim, look, we’ve treated you really good. We’ve put up with all the plants that you built in China for years. Now you got to build us. We’re not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves. They’re doing very well.

00:17:30

We want you to build here and they’re going to be upping their production in the United States. Apple. So Apple’s already in for 500 billion, but they’re going to be upping their production. So it’ll be great. So I really think we have we’ve gone from a laughing stock six months ago to the hottest country anywhere in the world. And that’s not just in business; that’s in everything else. And it’s psychologically hot, too. And I just want to thank everybody for being here. I want to thank the media. The media, I have to say, has been very fair. They’ve been very fair. They’ve been terrific, actually. I was watching some of our normally they would not say good things, but they’re having a hard time saying bad because this is a record tour.

00:18:12

There’s never been a tour that will raise – it could be a total of three and a half, four trillion dollars. This just in, this four or five days and it’s from great people and our relationship now is very strong with Saudi Arabia. Nobody’s coming, nobody’s going to be bothering that relationship; nobody would be able to break that relationship because of my relationship with the crown prince and the family-the relationship is really strong. And when you talk about Qatar, the relationship is uh equal, I mean it’s just like nobody’s going to break that relationship. We have never had a relationship with Qatar as strong as it is now. You know that better than anybody. And they’re very happy. And we’re going to protect you. We’re going to protect you.

00:19:00

That’s the one thing you need, maybe. But I don’t think you’re going to need too much of that. And I said last night, it was a great meeting, great everything. They brought in Lee Greenwood to sing. It was a beautiful evening, and I appreciate it. But I said last night that Iran is very lucky to have the Amir because he’s actually fighting for them. He doesn’t want us to do a vicious blow to Iran. He says, you can make a deal, you can make a deal. He’s really fighting. And I really mean this. I think that Iran should say a big thank you. To the Emir because the Emir is fighting very much that we don’t, and there are many people who want me to go the other route, they say just knock it out because nobody can beat us.

00:19:47

No, we have the strongest military in the world by far; not China, not Russia, not anybody. We have the best military equipment in the world, and we have the strongest military in the world. If you remember ISIS, uh General Raisin Kane right? We knocked it out in three weeks, remember they said it would take four years to knock out ISIS. We did it in three weeks. That’s because you had the right leader. With a stupid person, you’ll do it in four or five years. You won’t even do it. You’ll fight for four years and then you’ll leave, like we always do. You fight, fight, fight. We had a president that blew up half the Middle East, and then he left. That was it. Spent $10 trillion on blowing up the Middle East, and then he left.

00:20:28

Just said, ‘Let’s leave now.’ We’re left with nothing. And we don’t do that. We take care of our friends. And so you have a great ally in us. And there’s nobody even close in terms of military power. There’s nobody close. And I’m not only talking about nuclear. I don’t like to mention the word because the nuclear is so destructive, that, you know, it brings you into a different category. But we’re number one in nuclear. I rebuilt our military, by the way, in my first term. We had a really successful first term. Then the election was rigged and I had to wait; it became more historic. And I was able to watch and see. And the good news is they although it’s bad news in another way.

00:21:11

But the good news is that Biden was so bad-the worst president we’ve ever had by far. There was never a president like this. This man was grossly incompetent. And now that’s been proven. But people were able to see how bad it is, and it gave me a mandate. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by a lot. We won the counties by 2,725 to 505. That’s why the map is completely red. When you look at the map, it was an obliteration-this election. And we got 312 electoral votes. So, it was just an obliteration. And that means mandate. And we have a mandate that nobody’s had. They said the most consequential election, and this was an enemy paper, the most consequential election in 129 years.

00:22:07

So, it’s been a tremendous trip. I’ve really liked it. You know, this is going, we’re going 20 hours a day. And people say, ‘How do you do it?’ And I said, ‘I do it because I like it.’ I like it. I like the people I’m dealing with. I said last night, I stood in a line for, it seemed like hours. I said hello to Larry. I said hello to Kelly. I said hello to your 250 competitors. I said hello to everybody. And that was a long story, I want to tell you. They say, how do you do it? I said, I do it because I like the man standing on my left. And I said it two nights before about the crown prince, but last night I had the Amir and he’s fantastic.

00:22:51

And I said, it’s really not hard. You know, when you like the people and when you are doing something, we have a term, MAGA, Make America Great Again, very simple term. And I remember Biden saying, we will not let MAGA take over this country. I said, no, no, you stupid person. It says. Make America Great Again. It’s okay if it takes over the country. It’s called Make America Great Again. And that’s where we are right now. We’ll put America first. But because we’re putting it first, we’re doing so well, there’s going to be plenty left over to help the world. And we can help the world psychologically. So we think we’re going to do well with Russia, Ukraine. 5,000 soldiers are being killed every single week on average. 5,000.

00:23:36

And they’re not from here. And they’re not from the USA. They’re from Ukraine and Russia. So some people would say, why are you bothering? Because these are 5,000 young people. Well, they’re getting older because they’ve gone through so many that they are actually getting older. But these are 50,000 people that leave their home, wave goodbye to their parents. Their parents are so proud of them, their sisters, their brothers. And that’s the last they ever see them. They’re wiped out. And if you would see the satellite pictures, I get satellite pictures of that battlefield. And I want to tell you, I’ve never seen anything like that. I wish I never saw it. You have heads and arms and legs screwed all over the field. And you just take a look at that.

00:24:19

And, you know, when you think 50,000 a week on average, and that’s actually a low number. So we’re going to see if we can end that. I was thinking about going. But it’s very tough because of what we’re doing today and tomorrow. But if something happened, I’d go on Friday if it was appropriate. But we have people right now negotiating. And I think that, I just hope that Russia and Ukraine are able to do something because it has to stop. Not only the money, we spent $350 billion there. Just hand it. Nobody even knows where the money is. Just send him a check. There’s no accounting. There’s no one. Just give him money. Every time he came, I have to hand it to him.

00:25:06

I think he’s the greatest salesman maybe in history. Every time he came to the United States, he’d walk away with $100 billion. That’s a good salesman, right? Even by your standards. This is a big standard right here. But that’s a pretty good salesman. Go ahead. Walk in. Leave with $100 billion. Last time he didn’t do as well. He only got $60 billion. And it was so easy. It was like taking candy from a baby. That was the last administration. This administration has been a little bit tougher. But we’d like to see it end, and I think we’re going to have a chance at doing it. And we’d like to see if we could solve the Iran problem in an intelligent way as opposed to a brutal way.

00:25:46

There’s only two, intelligent and brutal. Those are the two alternatives. So I want to thank everybody for being here very much, and we’re going to take some questions, and perhaps now we’ll ask the press to leave, and we’re going to see you at the airfield. We’re going to have a display of American equipment, okay? Yeah. Jennifer, go ahead. No, I didn’t anticipate. I actually said, why would he go if I’m not going? Because I wasn’t going to go. I wasn’t planning to go. I would go. But I wasn’t planning to go. And I said, I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go. And that turned out to be right. But we have people there. Marco, as you know, is doing a fantastic job.

00:26:27

Marco’s there, Secretary of State. And we have people there. But I don’t, I don’t, I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there. Jennifer. Do you have an update, sir, on the sovereign wealth fund, your proposal for the sovereign wealth that we’re planning on doing? Yeah. Well, look, Howard likes the idea. I want to really make a lot of money, pay off debt, and just get it. And then you do a fund, you know. These people have no debt. It’s nice to have a fund. I say to Howard, we’re a little early because we have debt. And really, it sounds like a lot, but relative to the kind of income and everything that we have, it’s not really that much. But it’s still a lot.

00:27:10

And I’d rather pay the debt off and then do the fund after the debt’s paid off. And to me, the fund is just pay off debt. We’re making a lot of money. We had a situation six months ago, we were losing $5 billion a day on trade. Now we’re making money on trade. Don’t forget, we were losing a trillion dollars to China. So we essentially went cold turkey with China for a period of a month. Therefore, we weren’t losing a trillion dollars. I think that’s pretty simple, Scott, right? Scott did a great job over there. They made a deal; they have great relationships with China. You might wanna speak about that while the press is here for a second, Scott, the relationship we have with China.

00:27:55

It was a very important step in establishing a working relationship, below the two heads of state. So with the tariff program, we had a plan, we have a process, and now we have a mechanism with our Chinese counterparts to prevent an escalation again. We’re going to go into a series of negotiations. They’re going to be fulsome, and we have a lot to talk about. But I think over the next 90 days, we can accomplish a lot. We’re going to be, I think I can mention, I’m not sure if the press will understand this, but we’ve devoted, I’ve devoted, I find it, number one, I find it fascinating. If you don’t like things, you’re not going to do well. But I do, I find it amazing.

00:28:44

So I’m so looking forward to watching some of the power that they purchased at great price. But you’ll see some jets today. Some of the reporters were in the plane. Were you in the plane as we were surrounded by eight F-15s? You saw that? Were you concerned at all? It was a little bit spooky, right? It’s a little bit different when I’m reading the name of the pilot from my, I’m looking, I’m seeing the name, Regraw. I look at the, you know, his helmet. He’s got his name and he’s waving to us and he’s like, ‘you know,’ he’s like where you are. And so it’s, I’m not sure I feel great about it, but we certainly had a lot of firepower surrounding and as we were coming in, it was beautiful. And then just before we landed, they took off. And nobody’s ever seen like, ‘you know,’ they’ve circled the plane, eight of them.

FQAs

QA 1: Why is the U.S. accepting Qatar’s Boeing 747 offer despite constitutional concerns?​​

​​Context​​:

• Trump announced accepting a 13-year-old Boeing 747 “gift” from Qatar’s Emir (valued at $400M), claiming it will become Air Force One through the “Trump Presidential Library” pathway.
• Qatar is a major Hamas funder, raising national security and emoluments clause violations.

​​Key Controversies​​:

• ​​Legal Breach​​: Circumvents Article I, Section 9’s foreign gifts clause requiring Congressional approval
• ​​Cost Burden​​: $1B+ taxpayer-funded retrofitting needed, exceeding aircraft’s residual value
• ​​Personal Benefit​​: Presidential library loophole allows private use post-office

​​Political Reactions​​:

• Democrats (Rep. Raskin): “Corruption on an epic scale”
• Republican Dissent: 43% GOP senators oppose via private memos (Axios)

QA 2: How does Trump justify massive military budget increases amid domestic austerity?​​

​​Policy Details​​:

• ​**​1TrillionDefenseBudget​∗∗​:Largestinhistory(vs.886B 2023 baseline)
• ​​Domestic Cuts​​: $715B Medicaid reduction affects 13.7M Americans
• ​​Rationale​​: “Peace through strength” doctrine against Iran/China

​​Economic Contradictions​​:

• ​​Jobs Claim​​: 3-4M new defense jobs vs. 2.1M healthcare sector losses
• ​​Debt Impact​​: Military spending adds $210B/year to national debt (CBO)
• ​​Corporate Welfare​​:
  • Boeing: $37B subsidy for 787 production
  • GE Aerospace: $9B engine contract

​​Public Response​​:

• Swing State Backlash: 58% PA voters oppose cuts (Morning Consult)

QA 3: What’s the administration’s strategy on Iran’s nuclear program?​​

​​Two-Track Approach​​:

1. ​​Diplomatic Push​​:
   • Sanctions lifted for “long-term peace” negotiations
   • UAE/Qatar as mediators
2. ​​Military Threat​​:
   • “Violent step” involving next-gen drones (35k/unitvs.current41M models)
   • 8 F-15s deployed near Iranian airspace

​​Regional Dynamics​​:

• ​​Saudi Pressure​​: Crown Prince advocates diplomacy
• ​​Israeli Concerns​​: Netanyahu’s government demands “zero uranium enrichment”
• ​​Economic Leverage​​:
  • Oil exports: 1.8M barrels/day post-sanctions
  • Tech transfer: Huawei 5G deals pending