Pretty sure Trump would be all too happy to send some “freedom fireworks” to SA if it preserves the petro-dollar. The only reason we’re allies with them is beca

Pretty sure Trump would be all too happy to send some “freedom fireworks” to SA if it preserves the petro-dollar. The only reason we’re allies with them is because we need a major Islamic power in our corner to provide a counter-balance to Israel, and to be fair the Saudi government has proved to be the most ideologically flexible. The bulk of the population of SA is militantly conservative, and a despot is easier to deal with than a religious populist whose base hates our entire way of life. But the latter is not a problem for someone of Trump’s moral constitution — just bomb all the peasants to the Stone Age and take over the oil fields (which are already operated by American companies). They’re the best example I can think of as to what a “frenemy” looks like; and the petro-dollar is the only reason “fr” is part of that word. Their espionage activities show me they view America as a machine to be manipulated to serve their ends, not as a legitimate partner in anything. The Saudi military is, by all accounts, corrupt from top to bottom and almost entirely reliant on American contractors to maintain and result their stockpiles of American weapons. We know where all their weapons are because we built the bases and bunkers they’re housed in. They wouldn’t put up much of a fight, at least not for long. I wouldn’t be surprised if we planned for this and had a back door into all their weapons systems. Mind you, all of this would be an absolutely terrible idea and almost certainly start WW3 thanks to the cultural heritage around Mecca. But also keep in mind there are a non-zero number of voices in Trump’s base actively advocating our role in starting a biblical apocalypse somewhere around Israel / Syria — so that’s not necessarily considered a negative in the minds of Trump’s base. But yeah, I think the Saudis may be overestimating Kushner’s influence and underestimating the influence of Trump’s base. That’s the danger of supporting a populist.