President Trump welcomed Iraq’s newly elected Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to the White House, where they discussed economic cooperation—especially oil and investment—alongside efforts to counter Iranian-backed militias and stabilize the relationship.
Trump said al-Zaidi leading Iraq was the “beginning of a tremendous new chapter between our nations—prosperity, stability, and success like never seen before.”
“We will have a strong partnership with Iraq in the field of oil and we will announce it soon. Oil companies will enter Iraq at unprecedented levels,” Trump added.
“The oil companies are all going in now and they’re doing partnerships with Iraq, and they’re getting along very well,” Trump said
Trump then discussed the reduced need for a large U.S. troop presence, with a focus on protection if required.
We don’t need the military there… We’re there to protect them if need be, but we don’t think that’s going to be necessary,” Trump declared.
The president went on to answer a question about Iran’s past influence and recent developments reducing it in the region.
“I don’t think we need to be militarily present in Iraq
“Iran was a big burden on Iraq… but they’re not going to have that problem anymore. Iran is a burden on Iraq because it is a bully to Middle Eastern countries,” Trump said.
WATCH:
.@POTUS meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in the Oval Office: "We have a tremendous chemistry together… he won an election that a lot of people didn't anticipate… it was very important to me to have somebody get in there that can do the job and do it well." pic.twitter.com/nBSrbIVd8T
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 14, 2026
.@POTUS: "The Gulf States are going to invest a tremendous amount of money into the United States, and that was very satisfactory to me. I think it's actually much better." https://t.co/gSgGloeM4A pic.twitter.com/Wm0IRreSOS
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 14, 2026
The Atlantic Council’s Victoria Taylor, who is in charge of the Iraq Initiative, said that al-Zaidi has been called the “Trump of the Middle East” because he has a business background and no political experience.
Trump also expressed confidence in the Iraqi Prime Minister, saying something to the effect of “He is gonna be there for a long time.”
But Taylor added that “the reality is much more complicated,” noting that al-Zaidi was chosen by the current political infrastructure in Iraq and will be “beholden in some way to that system.”
“I’m not always sure that there’s a full appreciation of the challenge that this prime minister will face in actually trying to really dismantle core parts of the political system,” she said.
U.S. and Iraq also are poised to finalize a major energy deal.
“When you value business success, I think then it’s very appealing to look at an Iraqi prime minister who is likely a billionaire and can be really pointed to as a political outsider,” she said
An agreement is expected to be signed Friday between Iraq, U.S. companies Chevron and TI Capital and Qatar’s UCC for construction of an oil pipeline that will link southern Iraq’s Basra to western Iraq’s Haditha and then to the Ceyhan port in Turkey and the port of Baniyas on Syria’s coast, two Iraqi officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
