Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism, told Newsmax on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s Middle East trip this week is to change the emphasis on relations in the region "from security" to "prosperity."
Gorka said "the official tagline" in the White House for the Middle East trip "was to compare with his first visit there eight years ago, where we set the groundwork for historic peace and stability in the Middle East … with the Abraham Accords."
Gorka added: "So we're back there eight years later, and we're moving from security, from peace, to now building upon that with prosperity."
Gorka later said the Middle East "has become a hotbed for threats against the United States, our allies and our partners. Just look at what happened with the incredibly disastrous [Joe] Biden policies of the last four years."
Gorka said the U.S. must "reset the balance" and "make sure that countries like Syria don't become recruiting grounds for foreign fighters to be exported to the United States and elsewhere."
Gorka added that the trip is also "about the U.S. economy. America First doesn't work without those investments, without the tariffs, without the American people being allowed to become once more the lifeblood of the nation, of the world's greatest economy."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.