Trash-Talking Trump Pushed Saudi Arabia and the UAE Into a Vicious Feud
President Donald Trump’s private November phone call helped spark a sharp rift between two U. S. allies when he told the United Arab Emirates’ leader that saudi arabia’s crown prince had asked him to press for sanctions. The exchange is now tied to a December escalation in Yemen and growing distrust between the Gulf partners.
Phone call with Mohammed bin Zayed
Trump, 79, phoned Emirati President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, 64, to relay what he said had been a conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 40. During that call, Trump said the crown prince requested that he impose sanctions on the Emirates during the prince’s trip to the White House that month—an encounter Trump called "more than a meeting. " Trump also told the Emirati leader that his friends were out to get him and that the president had his back.
The sanctions allegation centered on the UAE’s backing of the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group engaged in the Sudanese civil war and accused of committing human rights violations. That connection framed the political calculus: if a leader believed an ally had urged U. S. penalties, the perceived threat to national interests and reputation could prompt a forceful response.
Saudi Arabia reaction and Yemen strike
Accounts about what the crown prince actually requested diverge. A Saudi official said the crown prince sought sanctions against the armed group, not the Emirates directly, while a White House official said no such request took place. Emirati leadership, however, concluded that the crown prince had asked for sanctions on the country itself, and tensions between the two governments escalated after the call.
The fallout became tangible in December when a UAE-backed group in Yemen launched a sudden strike near the Saudi border. The Saudi government characterized the action as a threat to national security and believed it had been orchestrated by the Emirati government in response to anger over the sanctions allegation relayed in Trump’s call. The sequence establishes a clear cause-and-effect: the phone call informed Emirati perceptions, those perceptions hardened into belief that Saudi pressure was underway, and a forceful military move followed close behind.
What makes this notable is the speed with which a single high-level conversation was tied to military escalation. The timing matters because the alleged request coincided with a White House meeting and intersected with long-running disputes in Yemen and Sudan, where the two countries already back opposing sides.
Trump has publicly said he was not involved in the Saudi–UAE dispute but added that it would be easy for him to settle. "I could settle it very easily, " he said, adding that he settles wars and rifts. That assertion highlights a paradox at the center of the episode: the president both communicated the initial allegation and suggested he could mediate its consequences.
Named actors in the row include Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and the Rapid Support Forces, while official reactions from the Saudi government and Emirati leadership have driven diplomatic and security reverberations. The differing explanations offered by a Saudi official and a White House official have not reconciled the core dispute over what was requested, leaving perceptions—rather than a shared account—to shape subsequent actions.
The broader implication is that private communications between top leaders can reshape alliances almost immediately when interpreted as a call for punitive measures. In this instance, the alleged request for sanctions produced a chain reaction: heightened suspicion, a public diplomatic rupture, and a December military strike that Riyadh described as a direct threat to its security.
