Prince Alwaleed bin Talal praises Trump’s policies—tariffs, debt cuts, and immigration—while linking Saudi-Israel normalization to a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. He blames Iran for destabilizing Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan, aligning with Israel’s regional stance. On media, he divested from legacy outlets due to leftward shifts but backs Elon Musk’s XAI, predicting $44B+ value, while dismissing AI energy concerns. Skeptical of green energy under Trump, he supports "drill, baby, drill" but warns against Venezuela’s minor market impact. Rejecting democracy as a global fit, he contrasts stable monarchies with unstable republics and defends Saudi Arabia’s alcohol ban as culturally rooted, contrasting it with U.S. prohibition failures. [Automatically generated summary]
The reason I've been so anxious to talk to you is because as someone who's been investing more successfully than almost anyone around the world for 45 years, I think you've got a pretty good handle of what's going on in the world.
With the Trump administration coming very forcefully, with clear vision about where the world should be heading, I'm optimistic, cautiously optimistic, but it's going to take some time because the legacy that Trump had is a big one.
On foreign policy, domestic policy, debt, immigration.
We will talk about all these things, obviously, today.
But the legacy is so big.
And we've seen that the first week of Trump, or now the first 10 days, is coming very strongly.
and I really hope that this momentum stays and have a positive effect on the international community as much as it will have a good impact on the domestic policy.
And I really hope that President Trump is very forceful in imposing or at least forcing Israel to have a peaceful resolution to this Palestinian issue that's been going on since the late 1940s.
It's about time to have a final solution for the Palestinian cause to stop all those terrorist acts that are really unwanted like the one that happened in October.
And obviously, you're alluding to the Ukraine war.
Also, it's about time to have this war end, a useless war between Russia and Ukraine that caused hundreds of thousands of people to die from both sides, civilians and otherwise.
And he said publicly that, you know, we are having discussions with Israel to acknowledge each other.
But as a good pro quo, we need a Palestinian state.
We need to have the rights of the Palestinians acknowledged.
And we need to have Palestine independent and have its capital city, East Jerusalem.
So if these things are met, I think Saudi Arabia is more than ready to have diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced a few months ago.
Look, I mean, it's very easy to get against Iran, aligned against Iran.
Iran is, you know, is a nation based dogmatically on terroristic ideas.
You know, we have seen how every country that Iran goes to, you have turmoil.
Look at Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza.
Yemen, Sudan, all those countries, what's common among them?
You have the Iranian infiltration in them.
So clearly it's not difficult at all to be in alliance with any country against Iran, because Iran always plants the seeds of trouble, chaos, and confusion, wherever they are.
So you have that big perspective in common with the Israeli government, despite your differences.
So there's been progress, I would say, between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but I don't think there's been any progress on the prospect of a Palestinian state.
People have been saying that for, you know, well, certainly since 1967, but it feels like we're farther from that.
We are very farther, of course, after what happened in Gaza.
But I think with the strong leadership from the United States and with the...
Effectiveness that the United States could really have in the West Bank with the Palestinian authorities, if they can have these people being more effective and more dynamic and inject some fluidity and some power and influence on them, they could really be the power to be reckoned with where Israel could negotiate with the Palestinian Authority.
And hopefully, they can have a control over what's happening in Gaza also.
But we have seen also, even the Biden administration and even Trump, you know, I'm not sure he was very much happy with what happened there.
At all.
But at the end of the day, you know, what happened did happen.
And now we need to see how we can put this behind us and open a new chapter in the Middle East.
Clearly, with the Syrian regime neutralized and having a new, I would not say pro-Western regime, but at least not anti-American regime in Syria, with Hamas hopefully demolished completely.
And more importantly, Hezbollah being almost neutralized in Lebanon.
These are very, very, big pluses.
And it's an inducement to have a peaceful solution for the Palestinian cause.
I mean, look, with Trump, I think if you're straight with him, you get a straight answer.
You know, we had very good dealing with President Trump, you know, when he was a businessman, whether during the purchase of the Plaza Hotel from him or buying his Trump Princess yacht.
I mean, it went just too far, too much, you know, really.
And it's about time for America to get a logical person, a pragmatic person.
Like Trump, I know some policies are extreme to some people, but his social policies, being anti-walk, being anti-left-wing completely, being too liberal, I mean, these are really policies that, you know, this is illogical.
You know, look, I'm a religious person.
You know, America is still a very conservative country, and one of the main ingredients of the success.
Of Trump in the last election was really his social policies.
Many people in America believe that America went too much to the left.
So I think getting back America to the center, at least to the center, not necessarily to the right, to the center, that in itself is a big achievement for America.
Yeah, on our books, you know, we have two investments.
We have Kingdom Holding, which I share, and I have my private investments.
So we have, with Musk, around $3 billion investments.
In our books, it's valued more than 50% more.
Clearly, as for X, we never devalued it.
Some entities did devalue it by 30%, 40%, 50%.
We never devalued it.
Clearly, now, after the election of President Trump, and after the strong alliance between Musk and President Trump, we've seen the market having revalued upwards X dramatically, at least to its par value, at the $44 billion that they paid for it.
I think X really began very forcefully and strongly.
And freedom of speech was there, was open, you know.
Clearly, whenever it was against X, freedom of speech and freedom of expression, without much fact-checking, that gave it the forum to be the anchor of the new media in the world.
And you see right now, Meta is moving the X model.
As I told you when I just met you off the record a minute ago, that Metano is being exercised.
It's being like X right now.
And this helps X reaching its potential of being fully valued at $44 billion and more.
So all the advertisers that really so-called fled or left X are coming back right now because the alternative is doing exactly what X used to do.
There's no doubt because we have seen now Mark Zuckerberg and Meta is moving to the X model.
Not only that, you know, not only operationally, but you have seen just lately that Meta is going to move its so-called administrative headquarters from Delaware to Texas.
So really, Musk and X have been followed across the board.
Well, you know, look, Musk is very close to the leader of the whole world, President Trump.
And no one wants, no businessman, whether it is Mark Zuckerberg or Mr. Bezos or the Google head, want Musk to be the only man who has the ear of President Trump.
They all want to have at least a small piece of the pie.
Do you ever feel like you can't trust the things you hear or read?
Like every news source is hollow, distorted, or clearly just propaganda lying to you?
Well, you're not imagining it.
If the last few years have proven anything, it's that...
Legacy media exists to distort the truth and to control you, to gatekeep information from the public instead of letting you know what's actually going on.
They don't want you to know.
But there is, however, a publication that fights this that is not propaganda, one that we read every month and have for many years.
It's called Imprimus.
It's from Hillsdale College in Michigan.
Imprimus is a free speech digest that features some of the best minds in the country addressing the...
And to be honest with you, you know, I'm invested in Meta also.
Smaller scale, not like X, but I'm invested in X. And he's right to look at the share price.
You've invested in XAI. What do you envision the world looks like after, in 10 years, thanks to AI? Well, no doubt that, you know, artificial intelligence is going to play a big role in having evolution in the whole, in the social industry, in the economics, politics, economics, finance.
So, AI is just beginning.
We're in the first inning right now.
And there's no doubt that AI and artificial intelligence will really impact the lives of everybody.
When Musk took over, they had around 8,000 people, and he fired 6,500 people and went down to 1,500.
And that's all documented, obviously, yes.
And that's one of the items where I'm really upset from the legacy media, where they said they cursed Musk and an ex for finding 6,500 people, and they were worried about their social lives and how it disrupted their lives, which is fine.
I mean, eventually they'll have jobs.
But no one talked about the economical and financial impact.
Of having, firing 6,500 people on Twitter.
They saved more than $2 billion.
And that saved the day because, you know, many advertisers did, you know, leave X. And there are two components of profitability.
Increase revenues or decrease expenses.
So clear revenues did go down, but expenses went down dramatically also.
So that broke even.
So really that saved the day.
Yes, 6,500 people were out and X was running more efficiently because I'm always in touch with Glinda.
You know, the CEO of Jared, right-hand man of Musk, and I'm in touch with Musk, and I follow this very closely because I'm, you know, a private investor there.
So we know what's going inside.
The companies are forming a lot better with 1,500 people.
So if Mr. Musk duplicate that on what he's doing right now with the U.S. budget, and he can save hundreds of billions of dollars, forget two, three billion dollars, maybe that's a bit too extreme, but he can save hundreds of billions of dollars.
And you can have America reduce its budget deficit dramatically, let alone to have it balanced.
That is a huge achievement.
Huge achievement for Mr. Musk personally and for the U.S. administration, Trump and the U.S. people.
Look, I'm not worried about that, frankly speaking, because, you know, they will always find a way to find gas, you know, whether it's the United States or other parts.
You see, the Arab world also did help a lot in supplying the Western Europe with gas, you know, once they shut down the pipes from Russia.
Yeah, you know, I think at least they're leading to their...
Look, they have so many problems in West Europe.
And unfortunately, they are not being acknowledged.
And you have seen a lot of right-wing parties, like in France, Le Pen, for example, coming very strongly.
And she may well win the elections a few years from now.
So all this is causing the right-wing to come up very strongly, unless they wake up so fast and do some quick remedies to their economical policies and also their political system.
Now he's the leader of the strongest country in the world, the United States of America.
I think with Trump, if you come with him straight, and not necessarily succumb to what he's asking for, but if you're logical and pragmatic with him, you can reach a conclusion, a deal.
That's the trading, you know, because today they announced, and today is Monday, they're going to announce, it was announced just now, and the instantaneous reflection on that was very negative, obviously, on the auto industry.
So, you know, getting into a trade war with Canada and China, both of whom are totally dependent on the United States, they couldn't exist with the U.S., is different from doing that with China.
Look, we're investors with Musk, and Musk is a genius of our era.
And clearly, he's very conservative in the way he spends now.
We put to them billions of dollars.
In having all these big megacenters being built in the United States.
So really, $5.6 million for this deep-sea canal.
I laid out this a little bit.
And we're still a very early part of this developing story to see if it's true or not and to see whether they really steal anything from opening eye or where the truth is exactly.
But, you know, I think you have to give it some more time to see where the deep seek fit in the overall AI equation globally.
Well, we have seen now many of those big companies now are trying to go other paths, you know, nuclear.
So we are really very much in the early innings about all what's happening.
But, you know, our bet, frankly speaking, is on Musk, on the AI game.
We invested with them in the first round and second round.
We're backing them all the way.
And we've seen very strong alliance between XAI and X. There's a lot of relationship between them that's really causing a lot of positive for both companies.
But, you know, for the past 15 years, the rest of us have been getting lectures about renewable energy, the green agenda.
Carbon zero, you know, basically hydrocarbons are bad.
Solar windmills are good.
And the second it became clear that AI would need a lot more energy than projected, people like Larry Fink said, well, you know, maybe we look to, maybe it's a, you know, it's a whole bunch of different energy sources.
Do you think the green agenda is over, thanks to AI? Well, for sure, with the Trump election, the green revolution now has diminished a little bit, you know.
It's not as, Being in the prime time, if I can use this term now.
It's there, but I don't think it's going to be so much as being number one priority for the Trump administration.
And we have with him a project called the BEV, the Breakthrough Energy Venture, that is invested in hundreds of companies that are in non-carbon energy.
And they're moving, frankly speaking, moving ahead.
So I think they'll still be there, but it will not be the same momentum and same oomph.
Well, look, at the end of the day, Trump is pragmatic.
Trump also has good allies in Saudi Arabia, in UAE, in Qatar.
We're always friends, you know.
I mean, even if Venezuela is being blessed by the United States, it doesn't mean that they can go and produce two, three million dollars within months or weeks.
So it's going to take them time to go back, you know, there.
All what they have has been obsolete.
In frank speaking, no new equipment has come to there.
So even the capacity of it as well, they cannot produce more than 3-4 million barrels.
So it's still okay.
It will not really impact the whole industry dramatically.
It will impact it for sure, but not necessarily devastate it.
That's why Saudi Arabia is transitioning from being an oil-based country into being a diversified economy.
So that's why we're investing heavily in tourism.
We're investing heavily into new minerals.
We're investing into other alternatives to oil.
We are diversifying our economy in many areas.
So really, when the price of oil does sink to below $70 or $60, we have other alternatives really to withstand the heat, understand the pressure of having less oil, less price of oil.
It's just funny that, you know, it was a year ago, if you talk to any big investor, At least in public, they would say, no, no, no, the future is not more drilling for oil.
The future is more windmills than solar panels.
But you were saying, actually, the future sounds like it's more drilling for oil.
But at the end of the day, when he has discussions with Saudi Arabia and with other countries, they will know that also Saudi Arabia wants the interests of the consumers to be taken into consideration also.
I hope not, frankly speaking, because I have this in Saudi Arabia.
I don't want to be 60, but I think long term, there's no doubt that the price of oil is heading not necessarily to the 100, but at least to where it is now, 60, 70, 80. Okay, you think it'll stay there?
I want to tell you about an amazing documentary series from our friend Sean Stone called All the President's Men, the Conspiracy Against Trump.
It is a series of interviews with people at the very heart of the first Trump term, many of whom are close to the heart of the second Trump term.
This is their stories about what permanent Washington tried to do to them, in many cases send them to prison, for the crime of supporting Donald Trump.
Their words have never been more relevant than they are now.
Steve Bannon, Kash Patel, I'm in there even.
All the president's men, the conspiracy against Trump, and you will find it only on tcntuckercarlson.com.
Highly recommended.
You made a big bet on Russian energy right after the war in Ukraine started.
So I know America now is being more somehow a bit isolationist in its approach.
But, you know, I think once Trump, you know, get more in the second term, he will acknowledge the fact that America needs to have this presence in all these areas to keep the strength of America consolidated.
I mean, of course, I disagree with you as an American, but I agree with you as a traveler.
I mean, what you're saying is obviously true.
But in our system, legitimacy comes from the consent of the governed.
Our leaders are legitimate because we vote for them.
No one votes for your crown prince, but it's also true that your country is thriving and the other seven monarchies you mentioned are doing well relative to the republic.
With all respect to Americans, with all respect to Tucker Carlson, my friend, you know, we're happy with our systems and we're going to continue with it.
It is, you know, many U.S. big businessmen do agree with me on that subject.
You know, I don't understand it very well, and it is a new form of currency that is really very confusing for me and complicated, and I don't understand it.
For your country, for Saudi Arabia, you've opened it up very dramatically, both physically opened it up, you're issuing visas to everybody, which you were not doing, ever.
But you've opened it up socially, women in the workforce.
Getting rid of guardianship, women driving most famously.
What are the reforms, the liberalizations that you wouldn't do here?
Look, Saudi Arabia opened a lot since 2015 when King Salman took over and Prince Mohammed bin Salman got in charge of the local situation and opened up a lot.
And I'm very happy with this complete liberalization of the economy, liberalization socially, whereby women became incorporated in the society, equal opportunity.
A woman can drive now.
Basically, it's a normalization of the woman incorporation into the society.
So it turns out that YouTube is suppressing this show.
On one level, it's not surprising.
That's what they do.
But on another level, it's shocking.
With everything that's going on in the world right now, all the change taking place in our economy, in our politics, with the wars on the cusp of fighting right now.
Google has decided you should have less information rather than more.
And that is totally wrong.
It's immoral.
What can you do about it?
Well, we could whine about it.
That's a waste of time.
We're not in charge of Google.
Or we could find a way around it, a way that you could actually get information that is true, not intentionally deceptive.
The way to do that on YouTube we think is to subscribe to our channel.
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