Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s Ambitious Middle East Vision | Explained

May 15, 2025
Iran Thinks They Can Outlast Trump. Can They?

President Donald Trump embarked on his first major foreign trip to the Middle East this week, making stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The goal? Replacing “strife” with “money,” bring Iran into the fold, and drop hostilities towards Israel. An ambitious agenda, maybe too ambitious, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:”“And the subtext of all of these meetings were: We're going to replace strife with money. We're all gonna be profitable. And we have to bring the cause of all of this trouble, Iran, into the fold of the Middle East and drop the hostility to Israel. Notice, of course, that he didn't go to Israel, although he was trying to elicit support for the continuation of the Abraham Accords with Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“This is very ambitious but it's also very dangerous. Donald Trump thinks he can cut a deal with Iran so that they would do essentially three things: They would give up their nuclear program; they would stop the subsidies to the terrorist surrogates of the Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis; and they would liberalize their society and reenter the family of nations.

I don't think that Shia theocracy feels that is their agenda.”

00:00 Trump's Historic Middle East Tour
01:02 Key Meetings and Deals in Saudi Arabia and Qatar
02:54 Trump's Ambitious and Dangerous Strategy
04:12 Challenges with Iran and the MAGA Agenda
04:50 Oil Politics and Global Implications
05:44 Conclusion and Future Prospects
07:01 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNQW4vXhcDA