It’s under-appreciated that this crew has an edgelord meme level understanding of the world. Witkoff on Carlson banging on about how the Middle East has so much more potential than Europe as a partner but in the real world it’s not a race where they pull even in six lifetimes.
Europe needs a kick in the ass (and got one) but here’s reality: the Middle East has nothing of value outside of petro chemicals and doesn’t need special care to sell that to us, they can’t eat it. The entire region with a slight exception for tiny Israel produces no innovation, no science, no culture appealing to anyone but them, nothing but angry young men desperate to get to…..Europe. And it will never do any of those things so long as it retains the stupid and backward mentality of its rulers, which we are desperate to reproduce here.
We are closer to turning into a failed and angry Middle East style sclerotic autocracy than the Middle East is to catchup up with Europe.