President Donald Trump drew considerable heat over statements he made regarding the role of the United States military in protecting Saudi Arabia. United States military presence in Saudi Arabia was largely removed in 2003 at the request of the Saudi government and US built and maintained Prince Sultan Air Base turned over to the Saudis.

Only training units—deployed to train Saudi personnel on United States military technology—remained in the country at the Saudi government's Eskan Village base. However in July 2019, military news sources reported that in June the military begun deploying hundreds of United States personnel and support equipment back to the Prince Sultan Air Base, now owned and controlled by the Saudi government.