MBZ sings UFC chief Dana White’s praises to Trump at G7 summit
The White House’s UFC Freedom 250 fightfest came up repeatedly when U.S. President Donald Trump met with Middle East leaders at the G7 summit this week.
During one exchange, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan mentioned Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts organization, telling Trump, “Dana White is an amazing guy.”
Trump also chatted about the June 14 event, which coincided with his birthday, with Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and French President Emmanuel Macron.
White has worked closely with Abu Dhabi since 2019, when UFC signed a long-term partnership with the emirate and began staging championship fights on Yas Island. He created the “Fight Island” bubble that kept the sport operating during the COVID19 pandemic, and has since overseen more than 20 UFC events in the UAE.
UAE’s Mohammed bin Hamad, Faisal Al Bannai meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Two UAE business leaders who advise President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed on security and technology matters visited U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and made a swing through the U.S. to meet with SpaceX founder Elon Musk, investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and defense firm Anduril.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Airports, and Faisal Al Bannai, Chairman of state-owned defense conglomerate EDGE Group, traveled to Palm Beach, Florida, for the weekend meeting at Trump’s residence and resort, they said in posts on X. Both hold senior advisory posts in the UAE Presidential Court.
The two also met separately with Jared Kushner, founder of Miami-based private equity firm Affinity Partners and Trump’s son-in-law. They were joined throughout the trip by Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed bin Hamad Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad’s son.
Before meeting Trump, the Emirati leaders traveled to San Francisco and discussed “possible areas of collaboration” with venture capitalists Andreessen and Horowitz, founders of A16Z, Al Bannai said in a post on X. Among those joining the various meeting was Abdallah Abu Sheikh, founder of Abu Dhabi-based Astra Tech, and CEO of Botim. Musk met them at another stop.
The group also visited U.S. defense contractor Anduril, with which EDGE signed an agreement in November to form a joint drone aircraft venture.
Gulf braces for violent night as Trump deadline on Iran looms
Power plants and oil installations on both sides of the Gulf are girding against the probability of attacks tonight as U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz ticks down.
Trump said at a White House news conference on Monday that, barring Iran’s compliance, the coming U.S. air assault would ensure that every power plant in the Islamic Republic will be “out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again.”
The President set 8 p.m. EDT (4 a.m. GST) as the deadline for Iran to open the Gulf waterway, where about 20 million barrels of oil – 20% of world demand – flowed through every day before the conflict started Feb. 28. Oil prices rose as much as 1% today, with the benchmark Brent crude reaching $1.11 a barrel, a 50% increase over the past five weeks.
Iran, in turn, rejected Trump’s ceasefire terms and said it would retaliate by attacking energy facilities in U.S.-aligned Gulf states and Israel. Oil and gas plants owned by Aramco and ADNOC have been damaged in previous Iranian attacks. Saudi Arabia said today that it intercepted seven ballistic missiles from Iran, with debris falling near energy facilities.
The head of the International Energy Agency, meanwhile, said the current oil and gas crisis is “more serious than the ones in 1973, 1979 and 2022 together.” IEA Chief Fatih Birol told Le Figaro in Paris that the countries most at risk are developing nations, which will suffer from higher oil and gas prices, higher food prices and a general acceleration of inflation.
Trump tries to stoke Abraham Accords by recruiting Kazakhstan
With Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman due to visit the White House this month, U.S. President Donald Trump is attempting to inject new life into the Abraham Accords.
First signed five years ago to normalize Israel’s ties with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, the agreement will be expanded to include the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, whose population is mostly Muslim, Trump said on Thursday.
Posting on his Truth Social media platform, Trump said he held a three-way call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
The U.S. leader said Kazakhstan would be the first of “many” new countries to join in his second term.
Tokayev said his decision to join the accords was driven primarily by financial benefits, The New York Times reports. “We will get certain dividends from the point of view of economic cooperation,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly coaxed Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader to join the agreement and said that the issue will be on the agenda for their Nov. 18 meeting.
Prince Mohammed, who has said he would like to improve ties with Israel, more recently conditioned signing the accords on the Jewish state agreeing on a “pathway” to Palestinian statehood.
Trump takes off for Saudi Arabia to start Gulf deal-making tour
U.S. President Donald Trump departed on Monday for a Middle East tour that will take him to the glittering palaces of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, with the stated mission of generating trillions of dollars in business for American companies.
After he arrives in Riyadh on Tuesday, the President will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who pledged in January to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
Trump countered that Saudi Arabia should be good for at least $1 trillion, a figure that could be unrealistic given the kingdom’s falling oil revenue and budget shortfalls.
On the sidelines of the palace meeting, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is convening a Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum that promises to bring more than 1,000 corporate executives, bankers and investors to the capital for a daylong conference modeled on the annual Future Investment Initiative conference.
The U.S. leader is also due to meet the rulers of all six Gulf states together on Wednesday for a summit hosted by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
When Trump arrives in Qatar the following day, he will make a decision on whether to accept a gift offered by the royal family of a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet that would be converted into an upgraded version of the president’s Air Force One plane.
The trip concludes in Abu Dhabi, where Trump will meet with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, along with his Cabinet ministers and prominent business figures, and work out details of the government’s pledge to invest $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the coming decade.
Eric Trump returns to UAE to pitch crypto at Dubai conference
Eric Trump, who drew enthusiastic hoots and hollers in Abu Dhabi last December when he told the Bitcoin MENA conference that his dad would unleash the power of cryptocurrencies, returns to the UAE this week to kick off Dubai’s TOKEN2049 summit.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s 41-year-old second son promises to deliver another rousing address at the gathering, which starts on Wednesday, as crypto fever builds with the imminent issue of the UAE’s own dirham-denominated stablecoin.
ADQ, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, together with First Abu Dhabi Bank and International Holding Co., announced on Monday that the digital currency will be fully regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE to build investor confidence and lessen the uncertainty inherent to bitcoins and other blockchain-based money. No date was given for the UAE coin’s debut.
“The launch of the stablecoin marks a pivotal step in our commitment to strengthening the UAE’s digital infrastructure ecosystem,” said Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Managing Director and Group CEO of ADQ.
“As we move forward towards an increasingly digital and connected economy, the stablecoin will provide a solution that is secure, efficient and scalable, while creating new opportunities for growth and value creation,” he said.
Alongside Trump, the two-day TOKEN2049 event will draw top names in the crypto industry, including Binance founder Changpeng Zhao; OKX founder and CEO Star Xu; Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets; and Mathew McDermott, Head of Digital Assets for Goldman Sachs.
Gulf stocks recover after Trump hits pause on new trade tariffs
Gulf stocks reversed direction in tandem with global equity markets after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a pause to his imposition of trade tariffs around the world.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark Tadawul index rose 4% on Thursday, its biggest intraday increase in four years, Reuters reports. On Sunday, the index suffered its worst fall in almost five years following last week’s announcement of the U.S. tariffs.
Elsewhere in the region, Dubai’s main share index rebounded 2.6%, led by Emaar Properties’ 4.7% climb, while Abu Dhabi’s benchmark index rose 1.3% and Qatar stocks gained 2.1%.
Oil prices, on the other hand, continued to fall amid concerns that the U.S-China trade war will keep spiraling upward.
Trump raised the tariff rate for China – Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil customer – to 125% on Wednesday, up from his previously announced 104% percent tariff. China, meanwhile, announced an additional tariff of 84% on U.S. imports.
Trump hosts LIV Golf in Miami, wades into PGA merger talks
U.S. President Donald Trump took a break from the political firestorm over trade tariffs to step into the fray between Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.
Trump flew to Florida on Thursday for a dinner with players and league officials at the three-day LIV Golf Miami tournament, which starts today at his Doral golf resort.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the president said he’s making efforts to resolve the stalemate that followed a framework agreement to combine their business operations two years ago.
“Ultimately, hopefully, the two tours are going to merge,” Trump said, “That’ll be good. I’m involved in that too.”
The U.S. leader has taken a role from the beginning with LIV Golf, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and burst onto the pro scene in 2021 by offering contracts to PGA stars for as much as $200 million.
While Trump has previously appeared at LIV events hosted at Doral, this week would mark his first appearance as president. In his effort to bring the two golf organizations together, Trump held a Feb. 20 meeting in the Oval Office that included PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan; PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and golfers Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.
Britain’s The Guardian reported on Thursday that merger negotiations had reached an impasse after the PGA failed to deliver “serious concessions” in exchange for a proposed $1.5 billion investment from the PIF that would make Al-Rumayyan co-chairman of the joint entity.
Gulf states find Trump tariff impact comparatively light
The threat of a global trade war set off by U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping imposition of import tariffs is leaving Gulf countries on the sidelines.
At the lowest end of the levies that Trump announced on Wednesday are Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other GCC states, which will pay 10% tariffs on goods shipped to the U.S. – similar to what is imposed on American goods in the region.
“That means they do it to us and we do it to them,” Trump said at a White House ceremony announcing the tariffs. “Very simple.”
Other countries in the MENA region that were hit with reciprocal tariffs were Egypt and Morocco at 10%, Israel at 17%, Jordan at 20% and Tunisia at 28%.
Global financial markets were hit by a broad selloff after Trump’s announcement, with U.S. equity futures slumping as much as 4%, Bloomberg reports.
Oil prices fell by as much as 3% on worries that trade tensions could curtail economic growth and limit fuel demand.
UAE, U.S. presidents follow up on $1.4 trillion investment pledge
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and U.S. President Donald Trump held a phone conversation to sum up a series of investment deals and high-level meetings between the two allies over the past week.
The Abu Dhabi-Washington call on Tuesday followed the announcement that the UAE will invest $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next decade, focusing AI infrastructure, semiconductors, energy and manufacturing.
The two presidents discussed Trump’s meeting with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE National Security Adviser and Sheikh Mohamed’s brother, who leads many of the country’s largest companies and sovereign wealth funds.
Sheikh Tahnoon talked to an array of cabinet secretaries and also held meetings with heads of the biggest tech companies, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Palantir’s Alex Karp and xAI’s Elon Musk.
