Opulence and flattery to win Trump's heart

Escorts of camels and Arabian horses. A luxury plane offered as a gift. Hundreds of men dancing with drums and scimitars before marble palaces.

- ABU DHABI

ABU DHABI - Escorts of camels and Arabian horses. A luxury plane offered as a gift. Hundreds of men dancing with drums and scimitars before marble palaces.

Extravagant displays of opulence and adulation greeted US President Donald Trump at every stage of his four-day swing through the Gulf, which wrapped up on May 16.

His itineraries in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates appeared tailor-made for a real estate developer-turned-president, who can be susceptible to flattery, transactional in his foreign policy dealings and is attracted to extreme wealth.

To the extent those displays were designed to curry favour with Mr Trump, they very well might have worked. While the Gulf states announced trillions in potential investments in the US during his visit, they also got plenty in return.

On May 15, the US agreed to partner with the UAE to build a massive artificial intelligence campus there. In a surprise move on May 13, Mr Trump agreed to lift sanctions on Syria at the request of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, even as some of Mr Trump's own advisers recommended against rapprochement with Syria, whose new president was once an Al-Qaeda commander.

"Oh, what I do for the Crown Prince!" the President gushed to the crowd at the investment conference in Riyadh where he announced the decision.