Trump claims victory on squishy Saudi investment promises

President Trump loves nothing more than flashy investment promises, and the Saudis on Monday obliged to the tune of $600 billion.Why it matters: This is an optics win for a White House cognizant of America's rising economic anxieties, even if some of the money never flows.Driving the news: The Saudis agreed to buy nearly $142 billion of military equipment and services from U.S. defense contractors, nearly double the Kingdom's entire 2025 defense budget.Saudi Arabia also agreed to purchase gas turbines from GE Vernova, planes from Boeing, and to invest in U.S. companies via new private equity funds.By the end of his trip to the Gulf, which includes stops in Qatar and the UAE, Trump is hoping to obtain more than $1 trillion worth of deals and economic commitments.By the numbers: An itemized list provided by the White House doesn't come close to $600 billion.Instead, it works out to $282.8 billion — nearly 30% of which involves private-sector tech investments "in both countries." Some of those are from U.S. companies like Google and Oracle.The remainder seems to fall under the unenumerated umbrella of "many other deals," which may include Nvidia's new agreement to sell chips to Saudi Arabia.The White House declined to provide more granular information when contacted by Axios, but reiterated the headline number.Reality check: Even if all $600 billion were accounted for, which it isn't, that doesn't necessarily mean there will be $600 billion of investment.Trump secured $450 billion via a similar Saudi pledge in 2017, but it didn't all materialize.The same goes for some other high-profile investment promises during Trump's first term, such as $10 billion from China's Foxconn to build a factory in Wisconsin. To date, less than $1 billion has been invested in that project.Zoom out: Saudi Arabia also could be hampered by its own economic challenges, such as low oil prices and a growing budget deficit. The bottom line: There's an old Arabic saying that there are no taxes on words.A corollary may be that there are no political penalties on vague investment promises.

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