The Hidden Purpose Behind Trump’s Visit to Saudi Arabia-The Dying Petrodollar

In his first trip overseas, President Trump placed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the top of his list of stops. That is for a good reason. Despite the Saudis horrific record regarding human rights, since 1974 the US and Saudi Governments have been strange bedfellows, locked into a special bond, one that neither can abandon and on which both country’s economies, and the world economy purely depend.

Last week you might recall, Trump met with an unlikely White House guest, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. That should come as no surprise, however, because in 1974, on behalf of the US Government Kissinger crafted the deal with the Saudis that would forever alter the course of history. That was the petrodollar deal. Since that time, the Saudis have held tight to the policy requiring that the world’s leading exporter of raw energy only take US dollars, or “petrodollars,” in exchange for oil. That the US dollar has maintained its value as the world’s reserve currency through all these years can be fundamentally attributed to that agreement. Obviously, Trump asked Kissinger for a visit to discuss the petrodollar agreement and gain his perspective on the precarious circumstances both countries find themselves.

Trump and Saudis Planning for a Post-Petrodollar World

The writing is on the wall for the petrodollar. The agreement between these two countries is running its course. Fracking technologies now enable significant oil reserves to be extracted from increasing numbers of locations and countries all around the globe. The nations of the world no longer inordinately depend on Middle Eastern oil, a circumstance that jeopardizes the US dollar. 

Trump understands the situation, as certainly do the Saudis. And although Trump would never move to take the petrodollar down of his own accord, he knows its value as the world’s trading platform has been defying gravity for some time. And once the US military might no longer be used to enforce its use around the world, a practice Trump disdains, coercing the nations of the world to use dollars at the threat of overthrow, the petrodollar will collapse, nothing remaining to hold it up. And that is one reason the first stop of Trump’s foreign tour was to speak with the Saudis. In many ways the rest of the trip hinges on the US-Saudi relationship. On the agenda of the closed-door summit was to discuss and plan for a peaceful, prosperous, yet inevitable post-petrodollar world for both countries. And Trump’s obvious good intentions toward the Saudis earned him the highest honors the Saudi government might offer, and which few heads-of-state have received.

Saudis Role Out Red Carpet for Trump

Trump understands that the petrodollar is unknown by most Americans. That is why he does not waste words talking about it. Rest assured, however, thoughts regarding a post-petrodollar world are on the forefront of his mind. Because Trump knows that America will no longer be able to print dollars from the air and borrow them to purchase imported goods, the president has been now instituting policies to make America much more self-sufficient economically, policies which include energy independence and a growing manufacturing base. And that means restoring the conditions that made America great in the first place: freedom, opportunity, industry, low taxes and putting Americans to work for fair wages taking them off government assistance, all the while increasing the tax base to repair and replace infrastructure and pay for essential government services. And all of that requires a system that does not depend on false mechanisms to impart value to the US dollar. 

To bolster the dying petrodollar system, and to enforce that system on the nations of the world, despite a long history creating peace through strength, America has become a nation dependent upon war, dependent upon instituting economic sanctions and upon intervening in the affairs of foreign governments. That is why we see little other than propaganda from the American mainstream media. Those in charge are clinging to an obsolete system, one that allows them to print money at will and use it to control entire countries, entire continents, extracting their resources with very little real investment, and thus concentrate worldly wealth under their ownership and control. The power of the corporate establishment, and thus the political power of the elected and appointed office holders it supports, depends upon the petrodollar system remaining in place. As goes the petrodollar, so goes any ability for private interests to print money to promote their purposes around the world. 

The war hawks, McCain, Graham, the Wall Street bankers, the military-industrial complex, the establishment politicians, in other words those referred as “neo-cons” and “globalists,” have been using the power of the mainstream media, which the corporate establishment owns and controls, the ultimate purpose to continue forcing the world to remain under a dying international trading standard, one designed to transfer the world's wealth into their ownership and control. They are ruthless and Trump’s primary adversary.

If Trump is successful in restoring a fair marketplace and American competitiveness, the powerful interests and institutions built on the petrodollar scheme understand that their influence and income will rapidly diminish. Rather than being too-big-to-fail, they will simply fail. Rather than printing dollars at will and commanding other countries to take them, and having the resources of the US Government to back their purposes, the post-petrodollar paradigm will force the world’s most powerful interests to compete for business like everyone else. The world will increasingly become a truly free and fair marketplace, but on a nationalist, bilateral platform, rather than a free market defined by elite power brokers on a global, multilateral platform. 

And what I describe is the reason the world’s most powerful interests hate Trump. That is why they keep pushing the same lies about Trump and the Russians. Lies are all they have. Putin desires a worldwide, competitive free market. Putin has long resisted accepting petrodollars and has attempted to create a market-based world monetary standard. And that is why Trump’s primary adversaries hate Putin. That is also why they act to maintain a divide between Trump and Putin. Both are nationalists. But the two leaders are dealing with the dying petrodollar from different perspectives. Whereas Trump sees it in America’s interest to plan for the demise of the petrodollar system, and work to restore a competitive marketplace for real economic growth and opportunity, Putin is simply ready for it to go. But Putin is also pragmatic enough to understand that an American economy caught off guard by a dramatic shift, would also be catastrophic for Russia and the world. 

Trump is attempting to create conditions in America that would allow the US economy to transition to a new post-petrodollar international trading platform. Ideally, before he can get there, the inflow and outflow of dollars to and from America should be equalized. A balance of trade must occur before the dollar might be safely abandoned as the world's reserve currency, and another international standard instituted. It's kind of like a relay race. For the baton to be handed off, both runners must achieve the same speed.

Trump sees the writing on the wall for the petrodollar...no pun intended.