p.Published in 2000, several months before the bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by extremists from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, my book, Petrotyranny, (Dundurn Press and Science for Peace), detailed how petroleum wealth was a major force in the perpetuation of war and dictatorship. Some of the world’s worst autocracies at that time – Russia (Vladimir Putin had just become President and had recently launched a war on its environmental protection movement), Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq – were funded through enormous petroleum wealth.
p.Three decades and five years after the publication of Petrotryanny, oil wealth has changed from simply corrupting the states that possess it, to tyrannizing the most powerful country, the United States of America. This was most vividly present in the crucial role that the effective ruler of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed, played in restoring to power former President Donald Trump.
p.In the January 6, 2021 riots Trump attempted a self-coup to retain power following his defeat in the 2020 Presidential election. Of the police officers who suppressed it, 174 were injured, and much of the US corporate community treated the soon-to-be-former President as a pariah. The list of companies that halted political donations to his Republican Party is astonishing. These included General Motors and General Electric, Ford, American Express, the Bank of America, MacDonalds, Black Rock, Boeing, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cargill, Hallmark, J. P. Morgan, and Coca Cola.
p.The origins of Trump’s restorationlay in the bond between Prince Mo-hammed and Trump that was forged in first term of Donald Trump’s Presidency. The critical measure was President Trump’s defense of Mohammed in response to accusations that he ordered the assassination of the Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. Trump later told journalist Bob Woodward that he “saved” the Crown Prince’s “ass.” He boasted to Woodward that, “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.”
p.Prince Mohammed sprang into action six months after the January 6 riots to restore Trump to American corporate favor. His critical move was to over-ride public servants in Saudi Arabia who normally manage the country’s sovereign wealth fund. He directed them to invest $2 billion with the Public Investment Fund organized by Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner. The Saudi state fund became the largest investor in Kushner’s Investment Fund.
p.With the Crown Prince’s aid, Kushner’s fund became the key force in restoring corporate respectability to Trump. The key battleground was the Professional Golf Association (PGA) of America. The PGA had. like much of corporate America, blacklisted Trump following the January 6 riots. Following the January 6 riot, the PGA stripped Trump’s Bedminster New Jersey golf course as the home of its an-nual championship. The apparent loss of the PGA championship from the Trump National course put Kushner’s fund into action by funding a new rival LIV Golf.
p.LIV Golf spent millions to poach top golfers away from the PGA. Opposition to Trump in the Golf industry collapsed when the LIV and PGA signed a preliminary partnership agreement. LIV held major golf events at Trump’s golf courses, which raised the profile of his resorts and drove revenue to his hotels and restaurants.
p.Kushner’s fund became important for a variety of projects in the despotic region of the Persian Gulf following the capitulation of the PGA to Trump. Various business interests connected to Trump signed deals with companies in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
p.One of the most revealing changes in the corporate world towards Trump came from the founder of Black Rock, Larry Fink, a life-long Democrat. Despite this background, he took a position of neutrality in the 2024 US Presidential election, stating it did not matter what candidate became President. He took part in the May 2025 Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia, attended by both Trump and his Crypto Currency Advisor, David Sachs.
p.The autocratic tendencies of the US Trump administration have been the focus of much public protests. Usually ignored however, is that its restoration was the work of a ruler of an oil-rich despotism, which is relieved that it no longer has to be lectured by the American government on human rights.
p.John Bacher is an environmental activist in St. Catharines, Ontario.
