Rachel Chason
Dubai: Trump International Golf Club has ornate fountains, striking views, strong branding – and a good collection of hats emblazoned with the words “Make America Great Again.”
But there was a notable absence at the property’s clubhouse on a recent evening: fans of President Donald Trump.
As they sipped their beers, Dubai residents said Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, and his often erratic conduct over the course of it, had threatened the stability of the United Arab Emirates, a place they had come to do business, and tarnished their view of him.
Initial optimism that Trump would be a good ally to this region, built in part on its business-friendly and steady reputation, had faded for many.
“On the business side, I thought he was going to do a lot,” said Bertie Jones, 23, who is originally from Britain. “But I’ve lost all trust in him.”
Publicly, officials in the UAE and across the Persian Gulf region largely have avoided criticising Trump and said the war has only made the UAE double-down on its relationship with the United States.
When he met Trump last week on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in France, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan thanked him for his “support” and “commitment” to his allies.
Trump, meanwhile, called the Emirati politician a “warrior” and joked that Mohamed, who is known to be soft-spoken, didn’t have to strain his voice by talking loudly because he was “that rich.”
And Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the capital, Abu Dhabi, this week for the first stop of a tour of Gulf nations and a working lunch with the president.
Speaking to reporters upon his arrival on Tuesday evening, Rubio praised the UAE for standing by the United States during the war. “I don’t know of anyone who’s been stronger with the United States over the last six months,” Rubio said. “They’ve been phenomenal.”
Analysts, however, said the friendly public posturing belies a deep frustration in the Gulf with Trump’s decision-making. Regional officials actively tried to avoid war and counselled the U.S. against launching it.
“Even as administrations changed, there has been a continuation of strategic direction between US presidents,” said Mohammed Baharoon, director general of B’huth, a Dubai research centre.
“Throw a dime in the street,” he added, and you could find a UAE resident whose opinion of Trump had changed during the war.
Among them was Omar Al Busaidy, 40, a businessman who said he felt optimistic when Trump headed to the Gulf region for the first major overseas trip of his second term. As Trump announced $US2 trillion in investment deals over the course of opulent ceremonies in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, Busaidy, who had studied in Florida, said he was sure that Trump would be a good ally.
Then came the war, and the more than 2,600 drones and missiles that Iran fired at the UAE in retaliation. Across the region, in unprecedented attacks during the first weeks of war, Iran hit refineries, oil fields, ports and hotels.
Even after Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding, there is still much apprehension in the region about the lack of specificity in the deal – and whether it will hold.
“I’m not going to lie, I had high hopes,” Busaidy said of Trump, sitting in a coffee shop in Dubai on a recent evening. “But we got played.”
Busaidy, founder of Global Possibilities Consulting, said there had been lots of excitement about Trump in the UAE, especially for his promise to be a “no war president.”
“We believed him,” Busaidy said, adding that Trump appeared to have directly ignored the UAE’s messaging on Iran, which the businessman characterised as clear from the beginning: “Don’t poke the bear.”
But Trump, he said, “either miscalculated or misread the situation” and lost the trust of many in the business community, who now feel it will be harder for them to succeed.
In one of the most public displays of Gulf discontent, Emirati billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor went viral with a public letter that lambasted Trump’s “dangerous decision” to “drag our region into a war,” giving voice to the frustrations that mostly had been expressed behind closed doors.
Nasser Hassan Al Shaikh, a businessman, former UAE government official and economist, said Gulf leaders have little choice other than to work with the U.S. given the security assistance offered by Washington.
That includes the Patriot missile defence systems bought from the U.S., which the UAE uses in addition to Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems.
“In all honesty, do we have any other choice? The US remains the leading global superpower,” Shaikh said.
“We don’t know what was going through Trump’s mind when he started this war, but we did know the potential repercussions,” Shaikh said. “And we know there was no knockout.”
Sitting in Dubai Mall on a recent day, Mohamed Al Kaabi, a local government official from Al Ain, a city near Oman, said that even though he didn’t like the war, or the increase in prices of food and fuel that came with it, he still liked Trump.
“Trump loves his country, and I love anyone who loves their country,” Kaabi said.
Next to him, his friend Khaled Al Kaabi, shook his head. Since the war, the wastewater engineer said, it had become clear: “Trump has only created problems for the world, then left others to solve them.”
The pair said they agreed on one thing: “It is past time for the war to end,” Mohamed Al Kaabi said, adding that people in the UAE are “not scared.”
“But we are nervous,” his friend interjected, recalling the days when the sound of drone and missile interceptions kept them up at night.
On a recent morning, shortly after Trump announced the MOU, Omar Ahli, 49, an air traffic controller, said no one was sure the war was over. “In an hour, it could start again,” Ahli said.
He and his friends said they did not get too involved in politics but still had a soft spot for Trump, even if the war had made them realise “he is crazy.” Ahli added, “But we still like him.”
Sitting at the bar in the clubhouse of Trump’s golf course, Jones and his friends said that most people in Dubai – a city of 4 million people, 90 per cent of whom are foreigners – don’t talk politics.
Tom, 30, who arrived from London last year and works in the insurance sector, said that before the war, he thought Trump would have been more popular in Dubai than in Britain.
But Tom, who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his first name because of concerns about repercussions at work, said Trump’s actions during the war – especially his repeated false promises that an end was imminent – had made it impossible to trust him.
“He’s caused horrendous regional destabilization … and just made it really hard for anyone to like him,” Tom said.
Finishing their beers at the bar, Neil Rodgers, 57, and Richard Lucking, 42, who are from Britain and work organising events in Dubai, said that they’d never been the biggest Trump fans but that the war made everything worse.
“He escalated the war and then it seems like he’s walked away,” Rodgers said.
They said they sometimes feel a little self-conscious coming to Trump’s golf course.
“It feels a little questionable these days,” said Lucking, who served in the British military. But it hasn’t stopped them. “The staff and the course,” he said, “are brilliant.”
Adam Taylor in Abu Dhabi contributed to this report.
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