ABU DHABI — President Trump’s show-stopping trip to the Middle East — complete with lavish welcomes, diplomatic breakthroughs and business deals worth an estimated $2 trillion — have left even Democrats favorably comparing him to former President Joe Biden, whose fading cognitive abilities and lack of “stamina” are being blamed for preventing similar accomplishments.
“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when the president isn’t f–king brain dead,” a senior congressional Democratic aide told The Post Thursday.
“This whole Middle East trip shows [that] for a lot of these negotiations, you do really need somebody who has that energy and level-headedness,” one high-ranking Biden White House aide confided.
“I’m the first person to say I do not agree with all of Trump’s policies, especially some foreign policies, but when it comes to showing up and showing strength and power, I think his team and [Trump] do a really great job of that.”
Trump left Washington Monday for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. On the same day, his aides secured the release of Edan Alexander, the last living US citizen taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, following direct negotiations with the terror group.
In Riyadh Tuesday, Trump announced an end to America’s long-running economic sanctions on Syria and met with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda terrorist who insists he now values religious diversity — with Trump saying he wanted to give Syria a “chance at greatness” in a speech in which he denounced the concept of “permanent enemies.”
Trump said that al-Sharaa had even agreed privately to establish diplomatic relations with Israel — one day after calling on Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords recognizing the Jewish state.
The president audaciously claimed Thursday that his tour “just took in $4 trillion” in business commitments, with White House fact sheets describing “over $2 trillion” in new pledges and agreements to fast-track other business.
The administration specified $600 billion in business deals with Saudi Arabia, $243.5 billion from Qatar and $200 billion from the UAE — with the most notable calling for Qatar Airways and the UAE’s Etihad Airways to spend more than $110 billion on 238 American-made Boeing aircraft.
‘A younger Joe Biden could have done that’
While former Biden aides said the 46th president may not have lifted sanctions on Syria or agreed to a cease-fire with Yemen’s Houthis without including Israel earlier this month, they can’t help but wonder what might have been.
“The deal with the Houthis, I think that a younger Joe Biden, a Joe Biden that was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could have done that,” said the former White House official, who served the entirety of Biden’s four-year term. “I don’t know now if an older Joe Biden could have the stamina and the negotiating sense to do that at that level.”
This source added that Trump had commanded respect across the Middle East.
“Landing and having all those camels, doing that big motorcade where you had the red Tesla trucks — all the Middle East really showed a deference to him, and they were trying to woo him,” they said. “And whether that’s really for his personal optics or for the United States of America, that’s to be determined.
“But I am not so sure that they would have done the same kind of pomp and circumstance for Joe Biden.”
The candid analysis comes ahead of the May 20 release of “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, who have released snippets detailing Biden’s declining physical and cognitive fitness.
Some Biden administration alumni attached their names to statements marveling at Trump’s recent foreign policy blitz.
“[Trump] has the ability to do things politically that previous presidents did not, because he has complete unquestioned authority over the Republican caucus,” former Biden State Department spokesman Ned Price told Axios.
“It’s hard not to be simultaneously terrified at the thought of the damage he can cause with such power, and awed by his willingness to brazenly shatter so many harmful taboos,” former Biden Iran negotiator Rob Malley marveled to that publication.
“Those same Biden staffers can save their alligator tears after covering up his cognitive decline and pushing their woke, progressive bulls— that cost us the election,” snapped the Democratic Hill staffer, who believes Biden also set up Democrats for failure in last year’s election by clinging to his bid for re-election and then crowning then-Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement atop the party’s ticket.
The former White House official, meanwhile, said that the differences in foreign policy between Trump and Biden speak to different power dynamics in the respective administrations.
Although Tapper and Thompson reported that cabinet secretaries lacked regular access to Biden in the final months of his administration, “one secretary that definitely always had access was [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken,” the source said.
“He was constantly around and always coming in and out of the Oval… and probably has more sway than [current Secretary of State] Marco Rubio does now.”
“Unfortunately,” this person concluded. “I don’t think the president was always the loudest voice in the room, which is disappointing because the room was oftentimes the Oval [Office].”
Other former Biden aides pushed back on the suggestion that Trump had been more effective on foreign policy.
“Trump creates a lot of churn, but so far he hasn’t created any better outcomes,” one argued. “Trump threw Ukraine under the bus to end Russia’s invasion, but Russia is still bombing it indiscriminately and Ukraine has less leverage than ever before.
“He held direct talks with Hamas, but he still hasn’t secured a return to a cease-fire. He reached a truce with the Houthis but they continue to threaten Israel and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.”
“It is great to move faster,” another former Biden aide mused, “but are they getting the desired outcomes or just more personal gain for Trump, like a hotel or a plane?”
