These days, it is hard to walk a block or drive more than five minutes through Amman without some mention of Palestine. Cafes print the flag on their coffee cups, “Free Palestine” punctuates fast food receipts, and billboards display an outline of the map in the middle of bustling intersections. Palestine and the Israeli war on Gaza set the stage for the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Jordan. It was a potential moment for change.

In the days leading up to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, many Jordanians deemed him the “lesser of two evils”. They believed that Trump had a better chance of ending the war than then Vice-President Kamala Harris, who they accused of being complicit in the Gaza genocide. Support also stemmed from Trump’s socially conservative values and anti-woke attitude which aligns with broader Jordanian society. However, plenty of Jordanians condemned what they said were his discriminatory position against Arabs and Muslims, his anti-immigration sentiments, and an inherently pro-Israel bias that exists with any U.S. president.

When the ceasefire in Gaza came on the eve of his inauguration, many Jordanians thanked Trump for the deal, despite Biden also claiming credit. In their eyes, Trump accomplished what Biden couldn’t; this was what Jordanians prioritized for the incoming American administration. 

Initial excitement over the end of the war fizzled when Trump froze aid to Jordan. Then it turned to anger when Trump pressured King Abdullah II to absorb millions of Gazans. The final straw was two months after the inauguration, when the U.S. cleared Israel to resume its attacks on Gaza. 

Now, Jordanians are unified in their disillusionment with U.S. foreign policy. Even long-standing allies like Jordan, and their citizens’ livelihoods, are not immune to Trump’s disruptions of the world order. They don’t expect that the next four years will depart from the history of American involvement in their region—a pattern of war, destruction, and dehumanization. 

A History of the United States in Jordan

Since 1958, the U.S. has been Jordan’s main ally after replacing the Hashemite Kingdom’s relationship with the British, and has since provided billions in aid. The United States is the country’s largest provider of bilateral assistance. Between 2023 and 2029, Jordan will have received $1.45 billion per year. 

In return, Jordan ensures cooperation and collaboration for their military ally and provides a stabilizing role in the region. The 2021 US–Jordan Defense Cooperation Agreement further solidified Jordanian and U.S. economic and military ties, ensuring Jordan $425 million per year for logistical, training and counter-terrorism cooperation. The agreement is yet another example of the U.S.-Jordanian military and economic interdependence. 

Jordan became an even more important U.S. ally after declaring peace with Israel in 1994. The late King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with former U.S. President Bill Clinton at their side. This was a historic moment, marked by 10,000 colorful balloons and a 21-gun salute.

“The long conflict between the two states is now coming to an end,” the Wadi Araba Treaty wrote. “In this spirit the state of belligerency between Jordan and Israel has been terminated.” 

Jordan and Egypt were the only two Arab states to have formal peace with Israel before the Abraham Accords in 2020—which normalized Israeli relations with Bahrain, the UAE, and eventually Morocco and Sudan. 

That strong Jordanian commitment to the peace deal—and regional stability—was on full forced display on the night of October 1, 2024, when many from the capital Amman and beyond gathered on balconies, sidewalks, and rooftops to watch what almost looked like fireworks, or perhaps a cloud of shooting stars. One by one, Jordan intercepted Iranian missiles en route to Israel for the second time that year. 

However, Israeli-Jordanian relations are currently at their coldest, a sentiment that reflects the opinion on the street. Israel has never been popular in Jordan, long before the Gaza war, mainly because the majority of the population is of Palestinian descent.

Jordan is often seen as a beacon of stability in the Middle East, especially now in comparison with its neighbors—mass civilian casualties after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Israeli ceasefire violations in Lebanon, and resumption of war in Gaza. Although the Hashemite Kingdom has not seen war on its soil in the 21st century, it has not been immune from American intervention. Fluctuations in the Levant region have put Jordan in a politically and economically precarious position. With clear dependence on the United States, Jordan had an existential stake in the outcome of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.

Pre-inauguration: Cautious Optimism, Expected Disappointment 

In the buildup to the November 5 U.S. elections, many Jordanians summarized their opinion of a potential Trump presidency with the same sentiment: Every American administration is the same for us—a disaster.

“He hates us, but at least he’s honest,” Khaled, a 26-year-old software engineer, said, brushing off the most apparent criticisms one may have of Trump’s attitude toward the Middle East. 

Khaled grew up in the Al-Hussein camp, one of Jordan’s 13 Palestinian refugee camps. Israeli militias forced his family from Bayt Mahseer, Palestine, during the Nakba 75 years ago. Khaled and his family only left the refugee camp in 2010, generations after his grandparents fled Palestine. 

When challenged about Trump’s pro-Zionist actions during his first term, like moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognizing it as the capital of Israel, endorsing the 2020 Deal of the Century, and cutting aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Khaled leaned forward to make sure his words were clear. 

“True, he moved the embassy, but it is not the same as killing 50,000 people,” he said, referring to the actions of the Biden Administration, and by extension, Harris. She is more ideologically Zionist than Trump, Khaled said, which is a problem. He supported Trump over Harris because he felt Trump was “more peaceful”. 

“Not because he’s a good guy,”Khaled clarified, but because he’s a businessman, not a politician. And war costs money.

In 2016, there was more room for Jordanians to care about Trump’s internal policies and his racist rhetoric. But now, there is no room to care about anything other than Gaza. His priority for an American administration was simple. “He can say mean things on Twitter, I don’t care,” he said, “just end the genocide”.

Khaled added, “I would rather have an American president who outwardly says that he hates me and is xenophobic towards me, than someone who says ‘I love Arabs’, and then kills thousands of them, you know?” 

Khaled and his family believe that Democrats dislike Arabs more than Republicans. His U.S.-based family in Michigan, New Jersey, and NYC, all voted for Trump. “My family follows the common Arab way of thinking: Trump might be more racist but he will harm us less in the real world.”

Yusuf, an Arabic teacher, agreed with Khaled. In a short break between classes, he paused to explain his opinion on Trump. Yusuf, who is originally from Nablus, Palestine, says Gaza was the most important issue in this election, overshadowing even the Jordanian economy. He sees the difference between Biden and Trump as one of principles. The Biden administration is ideologically Zionist, while Trump is an opportunist—and a wild card, Yusuf explained. This means there’s a chance that Trump could depart from the presidential tradition of support for Israel if it benefits him.

“Even if it is only a 1.5% chance, there’s a chance,” Yusuf said.

Ghadeer, also an Arabic teacher of Palestinian descent, agreed at the time. She prefered Trump to any other American president because of his unpredictability, which she calls “madness” or junun in Arabic. She believed he would “focus the spotlight” on the United States and leave the Middle East alone. 

Trump will stop the war in Gaza, she said, but she worried about how and when.

Since October 7, 2023, most Fridays after prayer, hundreds and sometimes thousands of Jordanians gather at the Grand Husseini Mosque. Some wrap their faces in keffiyehs and others hold posters of martyrs in Gaza. They chant for an end to occupation as they make their way through downtown Amman, even in the face of police barricades or, in some cases, tear gas. 

“Palestine is the priority,” Nidal said on what ought to be the prime concern of American politics. A lawyer born to a refugee family with Nablusi origin, he emphasized the significance of the Palestinian issue for the Jordanian people. 

He is not alone. More than half of the Jordanian population is of Palestinian descent—and even more in Amman.

Nidal, like many around him, saw no difference between Trump and Harris’s Palestine policy at the time of the election—except that the former is more “blunt” about their regional ambitions. 

While some may appreciate this “transparency”, Nidal worried that Trump would expedite Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank that would have moved slower under Harris. Not surprisingly, days after Trump’s election win, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich instructed his staff to begin planning for West Bank annexation, illegal under international law. 

The Hashemite Kingdom has long feared a third round of mass expulsion of Palestinians into Jordan—a country already struggling to support hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia. Jordan absorbed hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in 1948, with the establishment of the Israeli state, and then in 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In Jordan, 1948 is referred to as the Nakba—Arabic for “catastrophe”—and 1967 the Naksa—or “setback”. Today, 2.4 million Palestinian refugees are registered in Jordan with UNRWA. Over 600,000, the majority of whom are Gazan refugees who arrived after 1967, still do not have Jordanian citizenship.

“At the end of the day the central problem in our region is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” Nidal said, adding that the United States has never been fair to Palestine—specifically citing U.S. vetoes of United Nations resolutions that hold Israel accountable to international law or call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Since 1970, the United States has used their veto power 49 times against UN resolutions on Israel. “Nothing justifies killing tens of thousands of people,” he added.

Maya, a researcher at a development organization in Amman, saw the Biden administration as responsible for the war in Gaza through their military and ideological support. She herself is the daughter of a Palestinian refugee.

“Both Trump and Kamala are evil, but I didn’t want Kamala to win because of her involvement in the genocide”.

In 2020, the popular opinion was clear, Maya said, Jordanians wanted Biden over Trump. This year, however, they did not like either candidate, but they really didn’t want Harris. 

Maya added that she appreciated the relative quiet in Jordan and the Middle East during Trump’s first term—the first American president in her lifetime who did not launch or incite a war in the Middle East. That is Maya’s main priority for an American administration, to “fix their own issues and leave the rest of the world alone”.

Like many of her peers, Maya said, wars in countries surrounding Jordan, often waged by the United States, defined her entire life. 

“People underestimate how difficult it is to live in a region that’s been always on fire,” she paused before continuing: “As long as I’ve lived there’s been a fear of war. There has always been blood. There’s always a fear of instability in Jordan.”

An Appeal to Conservative Values

Arab American support for Democrats dropped by 18 points from the 2020 to 2024 U.S. presidential election, according to a survey conducted by the Arab American Institute. This translated to the polls. In Dearborn, Michigan, the largest Arab American-majority city in the U.S., Trump beat Harris 42.5 percent to 36 percent. Yet four years ago, Biden won nearly 70 percent of the vote and the swing state altogether. 

The Uncommitted National Movement gained traction as another alternative to Harris—a group born out of the “Listen to Michigan” campaign that encouraged Democrats to vote “uncommitted” if Biden did not denounce the genocide and work to protect civilian lives. And as the war raged on through election day, Harris not only lost Michigan, but all seven swing states to Trump. 

Biden reaffirmed his support for the war two weeks before leaving the White House, when he informed Congress of a planned $8 billion weapons sale to Israel, on top of the $17.9 billion spent on military aid to Israel in the year after October 7.

For many Arab-Americans, a vote for Trump was a vote against the Biden administration’s support for genocide in Gaza, and the war in Lebanon. For some, a vote for Trump was also a vote to protect conservative values. 

On November 26, 2024, the Jordan Media Institute hosted Dr. Alia Hatoug-Bouran, Jordan’s first female ambassador to the U.S., to discuss the incoming Trump administration’s potential consequences on Jordan. She explained how Trump leveraged fears of liberal cultural shifts—such as gay rights, open immigration, and affirmative action. A clear example was a campaign advertisement that falsely claimed schools were facilitating gender-affirming surgeries for children without parental consent. 

This attitude shaped many Jordanian views on Trump. 

“Our society is conservative and we respect our traditions,” Yahia said as he jerked his steering wheel to the left. We swerved around Sports City Circle, one of the many roundabouts that defines Amman’s topography, perhaps even more than the rush hour traffic we crept through. Originally from Hebron, Palestine, he criticized Trump’s Islamophobic rhetoric. However, he said that the president’s social values align more with Jordanian society than Harris’s.

But, I asked, does Trump’s appeal to “conservative values” triumph over his Islamophobic and anti-Arab rhetoric? What is the greater personal threat to Jordanians?

In a different pocket of the city, sipping an iced latte at a trendy cafe in Jabal Amman, I posed this question to 22-year-old Nadeem. While he grew up in Jordan, he holds U.S. citizenship and recently graduated from a university in Massachusetts. Nadeem explained this as a similarity between Arab and Republican principles. The two groups see eye to eye on gender and sexuality, for example. 

But, he added, these parallels shouldn’t blind Jordanians to Trump’s discrimination against Arabs.

Nadeem didn’t vote in this election, but he would have cast his vote for a third party candidate such as Jill Stein. His Arab family members in New York, however, all voted for Trump. 

A few years older than Nadeem, Rajai also lived in the U.S. as an International Monetary Fund (IMF) youth fellow in D.C. after he graduated from the Jordanian Princess Sumaya University for Technology. Currently, Rajai is based in Amman, working in entrepreneurship to alleviate youth unemployment. 

Rajai explained that Trump “might be racist, but he speaks to Jordanian values”. He specifically agreed with Nadeem that Trump appealed to Arabs through his “family values”, anti-LGBTQ+ policy, and “non-woke agenda”. 

Rajai posited that Jordanians support Trump mainly because they desire a charismatic leader in the region. Jordanians want someone who is action-driven and will end the Gaza war. But, he added, people are “uninformed” and don’t understand the consequences of a Trump presidency on Jordan or Palestine. 

Under democratic leadership, he explained, Jordan-U.S. relations are economically and politically stronger. While he saw people around him supporting Stein, he felt it would be impossible to elect a U.S. president who bases their campaign entirely on Palestine and an end to the war in Gaza. 

Anti-immigration Sentiment

Some Jordanians feared that a Trump presidency would threaten their chances to work, travel, or live in the U.S. given that Trump promised mass deportation and a crackdown on immigration, as well as a revitalization of the “Muslim Ban” before he took office. Currently, the Trump administration is considering travel restrictions on 43 countries—although nothing has been implemented. While Jordan did not make the list, nearby Muslim countries such as Syria, Sudan, and Libya are three of the 11 “red” countries banning all travel to the U.S. 

Sitting next to Rajai, Hamza, 23, speculated that it would be more difficult for Jordanians to acquire U.S. visas under a Trump administration. Hamza said that as a Christian, it is generally easier for him to get a visa to the United States, but it was still more difficult under Trump’s first term. 

“But an Arab is an Arab,” Rajai interjected. Maybe in the past it was easier to get a visa as a Christian, he said, but all Arabs are the same to the Trump administration regardless of religion.

For Syrian refugees in Jordan, a U.S. visa was a ticket to a new life. Samira fled from her home in Homs, Syria, 14 years ago. She currently lives in the underserved East Amman town of Marka, home to some of the 660,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan. On the morning of December 8, Samira, her husband, and three sons sang songs of Syrian liberation as they stayed up watching the Assad regime fall—the regime that had destroyed their country, imprisoned their family, and sent them into exile. 

“Before I was worried that Trump would make it difficult for Syrian refugees to be resettled in the U.S.,” Samira said. “But now, we’re free.”

Still, she hopes that Trump will support the political transition and reconstruction of her country. A huge part of this equation is lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria, where nine out of 10 people live in poverty. On March 21, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that, to this point, there are “no plans” to grant Syria sanction relief. 

When ex-diplomat Dr. Hatoug-Bouran spoke at the Jordan Media Institute, she set realistic expectations for the next four years. The Middle East—including Samira’s home country Syria—was not a priority for American voters and will always be last on the list of U.S. foreign policy priorities, she said, far behind NATO and other European alliances.

But, in terms of Jordan, she reassured her audience that—with 99 percent certainty—American funding would not be jeopardized under the new administration. “We’ve dealt with Trump before,” she said, and although this administration will bring different challenges with a new, Trump-loyalist cabinet, Jordan will maintain strong diplomatic ties regardless of democratic or republican leadership. 

Post-inauguration: The Reckoning

“Alhamdulillah”—praise be to God—Samira jubilated. “Trump stopped the war!”

She was among the many Jordanians who expressed gratitude for Trump’s negotiating team convincing the Israeli government to halt hostilities on the eve of the presidential inauguration. Despite the Biden administration claiming credit for the ceasefire, many Jordanians praised Trump for the deal because of its timing with the inauguration. 

What started as jubilation, however, turned to anxiety with Trump’s unprecedented freeze to USAID. With Executive Order 14169, Jordan lost 2 percent of its GDP and with its programs that provide food, water, shelter, healthcare, and infrastructure.

Ahmad, 27, is a researcher with a focus on social inclusion and gender equality. He was furloughed this past month alongside 35,000 people working on USAID-funded projects in Jordan. Ahmad had been offered a job at a $40-million project that strengthened civil society organizations, but frozen funds forced them to lay off their staff with a single month’s notice. Ahmad is grateful that he has savings to fall back on, but he stressed that many of his colleagues do not have the same financial safety net and have children to provide for at home.

“You can only imagine the economic repercussions that USAID cuts will have not only directly on employees and their livelihoods, but on the companies and civil society organizations that are their grantees and are supplied with tens of thousands annually to operate and implement local projects to benefit their communities,” Ahmad added. 

This move affirms what American and Jordanian political analysts alike speculated before Trump took office—that he would sideline Jordan in his coming term as he did in his first term. They expected the administration would continue to prioritize Israel and the Gulf States, specifically Saudi Arabia, as they push for its normalization with Israel in the reinvigorated Abraham Accords. 

Soon after, Trump proposed that Egypt and Jordan absorb 2 million Palestinians from Gaza—another hit to the initial excitement for a ceasefire. Once considered a hypothetical fear in anticipation of a second Trump term, the ethnic cleansing and forcible transfer of around 2 million Palestinians into Jordan has become an imminent threat. 

On February 13, thousands waved Jordanian flags in front of the Marka Military Airport, welcoming King Abdullah II home from his trip to the United States where he met with President Trump. Teachers cancelled class and took their students to join patriotic crowds cheering for what many considered a successful public rejection of Palestinian displacement by the King. 

A few weeks later, on March 4, Arab leaders met in Cairo for an emergency summit, approving an alternative to Trump’s expulsion of Palestinians and construction of his “Riviera of the Middle East”. The plan requires $53 billion to rebuild Gaza while Palestinians remain on the land. The United States and Israel rejected the Arab League proposal immediately.

“Now, nothing makes sense,” Nidal said in response to Trump’s displacement plan. “110 out of 100 people I know are against expelling Palestinians.”

Ghadeer, the Arabic teacher of Palestinian descent, is also shocked by Trump’s desire to ethnically cleanse Gaza and build a beachfront atop rubble and mass graves. The President illustrated his vision through a highly-criticized AI-generated video, originally created by a source unaffiliated with the White House that he shared and later reposted on his social media platforms. Among the scenes, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu lounge shirtless on the “Trump Gaza” beach. 

American allies such as France, Germany, Italy and the UK voiced support for the Arab League Gaza reconstruction plan, joining Saudi Arabia, and other U.S.-allied Arab countries, in rejecting Trump’s displacement ambitions. 

“Trump’s meeting with the King showed that the U.S. does not care about losing their allies,” Ghadeer said. “American politics are declining under Trump, not just in the Middle East, but around the world.”

The last straw for Jordanians came on March 18, when Israel killed over 400 Gazans in airstrikes with a green light from the White House. The ceasefire came to a fiery end a mere 123 kilometers away from Amman, the distance between New York and Philadelphia. The Israeli attack marked the deadliest day in Gaza since the first months of the war in 2023.

Khaled admits that after the first months of his presidency, Trump turned out to be worse than he expected. 

“He has no idea what he is doing,” Khaled lamented. “I think I overestimated his intelligence. He just wants to leave a mark on history whether it is negative or positive.”

“Trump just wants to be remembered.”