Trump Jets to Saudi Arabia with Wall Street Titans—Oil Talks Spark Market Jitters

Former President Trump and top banking CEOs are boarding flights to Riyadh next week—because nothing stabilizes energy markets like mixing geopolitics with hedge fund egos.

Expect closed-door handshakes on oil production quotas while retail investors get squeezed at the pump. The usual ’market efficiencies’ at work.

Bonus jab: Watch Goldman Sachs quietly short crude while their VIP clients tweet about ’energy independence.’

Oil crash deepens Saudi deficit as Trump demands cash

In the first three months of 2025, Saudi Arabia posted a deficit of 58.7 billion riyals (about $15.7 billion), the worst quarterly figure since the end of 2021.

That’s already more than half of the total 101 billion riyals the government expected to run as a deficit for the full year. Instead of using the country’s foreign reserves, Saudi officials have chosen to borrow more money to cover the hole.

Economists at Goldman Sachs now say the budget shortfall could reach $67 billion by the end of 2025, more than double the kingdom’s original forecast.

Meanwhile, Saudi authorities are still spending heavily at home as part of Vision 2030, a massive economic transformation project championed by Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudis needed oil at $93 a barrel to break even last year.

If spending from the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund is included—especially on massive infrastructure projects—the breakeven price jumps to $108, according to Ziad Daoud, chief emerging markets economist at Bloomberg Economics.

Amid these numbers, Trump’s trip is aimed at getting rich Gulf states to ramp up their purchases of American products and to pour billions into US companies and infrastructure. At the same time, Saudi Arabia wants tighter military and defense cooperation with the US and long-term security guarantees. 

Officials in Riyadh are positioning the kingdom to become the dominant business and trade hub in the region, and locking in direct investment is a key part of that plan.

Trump’s visit is expected to boost those talks. Saudi officials want to pull in over $100 billion in foreign direct investment each year by 2030, nearly five times the total they received last year.

Many of the American firms coming to the Riyadh forum already have deep connections to Saudi money, with their leaders attending the Future Investment Initiative, the kingdom’s high-profile annual finance summit.

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