Trump beats Harris in Saudi 'virtual vote' on global economy

Former US president Donald Trump has defeated sitting Vice President Kamala Harris in a Saudi-held virtual vote on who would be better for the global economy should they become president after the election on 5 November.

The vote, held on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, posed the question: "Which next American president would improve the global economy?"

Sixty-seven percent of attendees who participated in the vote picked Republican nominee Trump, while Harris received 33 percent, according to Saudi media reports.

The US presidential election on 5 November will have huge implications on the world, both in economic and geopolitical terms. Earlier this month, 23 Nobel Prize-winning economists called Harris’s economic plans "vastly superior" to those of Trump.

However, a majority of participants of the FII conference, which includes around 7000 entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers, as well as 600 specialist speakers, seemingly disagree.

Donald Trump enjoys a close relationship with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de factor ruler Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), with many believing the kingdom would hugely favour a Trump return to the White House.

During Trump’s first administration, he focused on strengthening ties with Saudi Arabia, making it central to his Middle East policy by supporting its stance against Iran and encouraging substantial purchases of US-made weapons in its brutal war on Yemen.

Trump praised the Saudi government's crackdown on hundreds of prominent businessmen, officials, and royal family members detained at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel in November 2017. He continued to support Saudi Arabia even after the CIA determined that the influential crown prince had ordered the brutal killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in October 2018.

More recently, there has been several allegations of direct corruption between Saudi Arabia and the former Trump administration, with US Congress calling for an investigation into allegations that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, was functioning as an unregistered foreign agent for Saudi Arabia.

Kushner, who was Trump’s special adviser during his last administration, received $2 billion for an investment firm he set up from Saudi Arabia. Earlier this month, Reuters, citing an unnamed source, revealed that Kushner discussed several issues with MbS regarding US-Saudi diplomacy, including Israel and Gaza, when out of office.

While the Biden administration, which Harris serves, fostered close ties with Saudi Arabia, they also stopped providing Saudi Arabia with weapons used against Yemen.

It is widely believed that Trump’s unorthodox diplomatic and foreign policy style, and his self-admitted admiration of authoritarians and dictators, makes him a favourite of many Arab regimes.