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Wright, in Abu Dhabi, Describes Gulf States' Drive to Invest in the United States

May 15, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:06:31

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Fox News’ Martha MacCallum from Abu Dhabi, where he was traveling with President Trump, in the interview the Department of Energy uploaded. Wright described the trip as truly inspiring and said Middle East leaders had been, in his word, gobsmacked by a president focused on peace and prosperity who listens to their concerns and engages in on-the-spot dialogue; he cited the ending of the Syria boycott as a decision that resulted from universal feedback from regional allies that it was the right thing to do, as he recounted the episode.

On energy and investment, Wright said the biggest focus is that the Gulf countries generate enormous amounts of cash and want to deploy it in the United States — in energy infrastructure, AI, healthcare and technology — in partnership with the United States, alongside American investment in their own energy production and technology sectors, as he described the two-way flow. He argued the countries are natural allies of the United States who send their children to American schools, and that the cold shoulder of the previous four years had slowed investment into the United States and set the region back, as he characterized the prior relationship.

Wright said the strengthened relationships would bring prosperity and are also, in his framing, the road to peace, predicting the President will bring peace in the Middle East by bringing Iran back into the club of nations and ending its nuclear program, as he stated the administration’s aim.

Why it matters

The Abu Dhabi interview is the Energy Secretary’s dispatch from the President’s Gulf tour — investment-first diplomacy described from inside the delegation, with the Syria sanctions decision offered as proof of the President’s on-the-spot style.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox News’ Martha MacCallum - May 15, 2025”, 2025-05-15 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-05-15). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.