President Trump’s spectacular trip to the Middle East, complete with lavish welcomes, diplomatic breakthroughs, and business deals worth an estimated $2 trillion, has left even Democrats favorably comparing him to former President Joe Biden, whose deteriorating cognitive abilities and lack of “stamina” are blamed for preventing similar accomplishments.
“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when the president isn’t f-king brain dead,” a senior Democratic congressional aide told The Post on Thursday.
“This whole Middle East trip shows [that] for a lot of these negotiations, you do really need somebody who has that energy and level-headedness,” one high-ranking Biden White House aide confided.
“I’m the first person to say I do not agree with all of Trump’s policies, especially some foreign policies, but when it comes to showing up and showing strength and power, I think his team and [Trump] do a really great job of that.”
Trump left Washington on Monday for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. On the same day, his aides secured the release of Edan Alexander, the last living US citizen kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, through direct negotiations with the terror group.
In Riyadh on Tuesday, Trump announced the lifting of America’s long-standing economic sanctions on Syria and met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda terrorist who claims to now value religious diversity — with Trump saying he wanted to give Syria a “chance at greatness” in a speech in which he denounced the concept of “permanent enemies.”
Trump claimed that al-Sharaa had even privately agreed to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, a day after calling on Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, which recognize the Jewish state.
The president boasted on Thursday that his tour “just took in $4 trillion” in business commitments, while White House fact sheets detailed “over $2 trillion” in new pledges and agreements to expedite other business.
The administration proposed $600 billion in business deals with Saudi Arabia, $243.5 billion with Qatar, and $200 billion with the UAE, with the most significant requiring Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways to spend more than $110 billion on 238 American-made Boeing aircraft.
‘A young Joe Biden could have done that.’
While former Biden aides argue that the 46th president would not have lifted sanctions on Syria or agreed to a cease-fire with Yemen’s Houthis without including Israel earlier this month, they can’t help but wonder what could have been.
“The deal with the Houthis, I think a younger Joe Biden, a Joe Biden who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, could have done that,” said the former White House official who served Biden’s entire four-year term. “I don’t know now if an older Joe Biden could have the stamina and the negotiating sense to do that at that level.”
This source also stated that Trump had commanded respect throughout the Middle East.
“Landing and having all those camels, doing that big motorcade where you had the red Tesla trucks — all the Middle East really showed a deference to him, and they were trying to woo him,” they recounted. “Whether this is for his personal optics or for the United States of America remains to be seen.
“But I am not so sure that they would have done the same kind of pomp and circumstance for Joe Biden.”
The candid analysis comes ahead of the May 20 release of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which has already released snippets detailing Biden’s declining physical and cognitive fitness.
Some Biden administration alumni signed statements praising Trump’s recent foreign policy blitz.
“[Trump] has the ability to do things politically that previous presidents did not, because he has complete unquestioned authority over the Republican caucus,” former Biden State Department spokesman Ned Price told Axios.
“It’s hard not to be simultaneously terrified at the thought of the damage he can cause with such power, and awed by his willingness to brazenly shatter so many harmful taboos,” former Biden Iran negotiator Rob Malley marveled to that publication.
“Those same Biden staffers can save their alligator tears after covering up his cognitive decline and pushing their woke, progressive bulls—that cost us the election,” snapped the Democratic Hill staffer, who believes Biden also set Democrats up for failure in last year’s election by clinging to his re-election bid and then crowning then-Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement atop the party’s ticket.
Meanwhile, the former White House official stated that Trump and Biden’s foreign policy differences reflect different power dynamics within their respective administrations.
Although Tapper and Thompson reported that cabinet secretaries did not have regular access to Biden in the final months of his administration, “one secretary that definitely always had access was [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken,” the source stated.
“He was constantly in and out of the Oval… and probably wields more power than [current Secretary of State] Marco Rubio does.”
“Unfortunately,” the speaker concluded. “I don’t think the president was always the loudest voice in the room, which is disappointing because the room was oftentimes the Oval [Office].”
Other former Biden aides disputed the claim that Trump had been more effective in foreign policy.
“Trump creates a lot of churn, but so far he hasn’t created any better outcomes,” a colleague said. “Trump threw Ukraine under the bus to end Russia’s invasion, but Russia continues to bomb it indiscriminately, and Ukraine now has less leverage than ever before.
“He held direct talks with Hamas, but he has yet to secure a return to the cease-fire. He reached a truce with the Houthis, but they continue to threaten Israel and free navigation in the Red Sea.
“It is great to move faster,” remarked a former Biden staffer, “but are they getting the desired outcomes or just more personal gain for Trump, like a hotel or a plane?”
