America for Sale: How Billionaires Write the Middle East Map

The world’s “superpower” now takes bids and the highest bidder gets a piece of the Middle East.

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Trump stood there in the Knesset, basking in the applause, grinning like a man who just remembered a great deal he’d closed. He starts reminiscing, “Her husband was a very aggressive man, but I loved him.” Of course he did. Sheldon Adelson wasn’t just aggressive; he was strategically generous. Trump recalls how Adelson “got him thinking” about the Golan Heights, which, in Trump’s own words, turned out to be “one of the greatest things that ever happened to Israel.” And there you have it, American foreign policy in the Middle East, brought to you by the art of the deal.

What does it take to get a superpower to redraw borders? Apparently, about $100 million in campaign donations. For that price, you can buy not just influence, but entire territories with a presidential signature thrown in for free. Trump said it so casually, like he was describing a golf game at Mar-a-Lago. “He’d call up, can I come over and see you? I’d say, Sheldon, I’m the president of the United States, it doesn’t work that way.” But of course it did. Adelson walked through the White House doors the way billionaires always do, no need for appointments, just access.

Then came the next act in the theater. Trump turns toward Miriam Adelson, the widow, sitting there, glowing in the spotlight of gratitude. He praises her love for Israel, and then — in that classic Trumpian showman style — tosses her a question: “Miriam, what do you love more, the United States or Israel?” She refused to answer. And the crowd laughs nervously, because everyone already knows the answer but pretends not to.

Imagine if any other dual citizen — say, someone with Russian or Chinese citizenship — refused to answer whether they loved America more. The entire Washington establishment would combust in patriotic outrage. CNN would hold a weeklong special. Senators would demand investigations. But when it’s about Israel, everyone looks the other way.

This is not even about Trump anymore. He just says out loud what other presidents keep quiet. The real story here is how normalized it has become for foreign donors — often with dual loyalties — to shape the foreign policy of the United States. It’s not a conspiracy; it’s a business model. You fund the campaign, you get the policy. You host the gala, you get the embassy moved to Jerusalem. You whisper in the right ear, and suddenly, Washington recognizes occupied territory as sovereign Israeli land.

And yet, Americans are told that this is “shared values.” But what shared values are these, exactly? Bombing civilians with U.S.-made weapons? Annexing land while preaching democracy? Maybe it’s just the shared value of a check that clears.

What makes this scene more absurd is that it’s happening in front of the Knesset, with American politicians acting like guests at a royal coronation. The applause isn’t for America’s generosity or democracy; it’s for its obedience. When a president of the United States publicly admits that he recognized the Golan Heights because a billionaire donor nudged him, it’s pay-to-play foreign policy dressed in the flag of friendship.

And yet, some Americans still believe they live in a republic governed by the will of the people. No, my friends. The will of the people doesn’t sign checks that big. The will of the people doesn’t have private meetings in the Oval Office. The will of the people gets its news from cable TV while the real deals are made behind closed doors, over cigars and campaign promises.

What’s fascinating, though, is how the backlash is starting to bubble up within the conservative camp itself. Ordinary patriotic Americans are asking the forbidden question: “Who are these donors really serving?” And when a major donor refuses to say whether she loves America more than Israel, it’s a mirror held up to a broken system.

It’s hard not to laugh at the irony. A president who ran on “America First” proudly admits that his Middle East policy was shaped by people whose loyalties lie elsewhere. You couldn’t script it better in a political satire. Except it’s not satire, it’s real life.

So next time someone tells you U.S. foreign policy is about principles, remember Trump’s words about Adelsons: “they got me thinking about the Golan Heights.” Translation: they paid me to think differently.

And if $100 million can make a president think differently about sovereignty, imagine what a few billion could do.

—Kevork Almassian is a Syrian geopolitical analyst and the founder of Syriana Analysis.