President Donald Trump's plea to Saudi Arabia to award the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the listing of Saudi Aramco, the Kingdom's national oil company, came only a day or so before the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, locked up dozens of the country's political and business elite and froze billions of dollars of their assets.

Yet, none of this seems to have changed Trump's opinion that hosting the IPO (initial public offering) in Wall Street is, to quote his November 4 tweet, "important to the United States."



Trump's eagerness to win the biggest IPO in history stems from his view that the soaring stock market is the best reflection of what he views as the success of his economic policies. By adding Aramco to the S&P 500, Trump hopes to continue the rally deep into 2018 and beyond, even if his tax plan were to falter.

He knows that such a mammoth IPO, estimated at $100 billion, would beef up the stocks of potential underwriters like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan as well as scores of service providers associated with the offering.

He also hopes that a New York IPO would solidify U.S.-Saudi relations even beyond the $350 billion arms deal signed between the two countries earlier this year, bringing more lucrative deals down the road.