‘The Most American King’: Journalist Aaron Magid Details Jordan’s King Abdullah’s Rise To Power

Ohad Merlin

JERUSALEM — ‘There aren’t many who wrote about Jordan, including journalists,’ noted Aaron Magid, a journalist and Jordan expert who authored the new biography of King Abdullah, whom he dubbed the Most American King. “Major news outlets such as the New York Times and Washington Post don’t even have permanent correspondents there. This is, in part, what led me to write this book.”
Magid’s fascination with Jordan began in an unlikely place, growing up in Chicago as part of what he referred to as “the 9/11 generation.”
“I became interested in the Middle East and learned Arabic during the Iraq War period,” Magid told this reporter in an interview about his new book.
His initial curiosity led him to spend a year-and-a-half in Jordan in 2014 learning Arabic, and ultimately to write what may be the most comprehensive English-language biography of the current Jordanian monarch.
Research for the book was extensive, involving more than 100 interviews with senior officials from Jordan, the United States and Israel, as well as ambassadors, journalists, and figures from the security field. He also hosts a podcast about Jordan, reflecting his deep engagement with the country that first drew him as a young Arabic student.
The book’s title, The Most American King, reflects what Magid sees as Abdullah’s unique position among Middle Eastern leaders. “His personal connections to the United States tell an all-American story,” Magid said. “When he became king in 1999, he spoke English better than Arabic.”
Abdullah’s American credentials run deep. He studied at Georgetown University, and later sent his own children to the same institution. “He didn’t just enjoy it there,” Magid observed, “but trusted it enough for his own family.” The king’s honeymoon took him to Hawaii, Washington, and New York, and he trained with the American military. Magid noted that Abdullah frequently references American cultural cues, movies, and sitcoms in conversation, something quite unique among regional leaders.

In an interview, journalist and researcher Aaron Magid details Jordanian King Abdullah’s unique position in the Middle East

Abdullah’s political relationships with the U.S. have been equally strong. “Jordan has very good relations with the U.S., on both political and security terms,” Magid explained. “He’s the first Arab leader to meet Presidents Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama in the White House.” The partnership includes American soldiers on Jordanian soil and $15 billion in aid over the years, which further signifies Abdullah’s astute bipartisan game, as well as Jordan’s value in the eyes of American lawmakers.
Magid suggested that under Trump’s second term, with the U.S. expected to shift to stronger ties with Gulf States, the relationship might deepen further. He praised Abdullah’s political dexterity: “Abdullah doesn’t prefer one side or one administration; he works with all sides.” Even when American policies weren’t popular in Jordan, Abdullah maintained good relations. “Nobody thought that Trump presented a feasible Gaza plan during his last meeting with the Hashemite ruler, but Abdullah still worked to maintain good connections with the administration and with Trump personally.”
One of the book’s central themes examines how Abdullah has remained in power for so long, particularly during the tumultuous Arab Spring period. “Many who came to power with him or before him have been ousted, but he remained,” Magid added, noting that while the Obama administration essentially pushed out Egypt’s Mubarak, Abdullah wasn’t pressured at all.
Magid attributed this survival to several factors. “Jordanian security forces were stronger and more loyal to the regime, and there haven’t been local militias active in Jordan, as was the case in other Arab countries,” he explained. He also added that since the violent Palestinian insurgency against Hussein in the 1970 events dubbed as Black September, military commanders have been appointed mainly from East Bank Jordanians, rather than Palestinian ones, creating a more loyal command structure.
The author also emphasized a crucial distinction in Abdullah’s governing style. “He’s authoritarian but not brutal,” Magid said. “This certainly isn’t a democracy; it’s a monarchy after all. Parliament is toothless, and elections have been gerrymandered.”
However, he continued, “On the other hand, Abdullah never massacred his people by the tens of thousands nor arrested them by the thousands, as opposed to other tyrants from the region.”
According to Magid, this approach has helped Abdullah maintain power without facing serious challenges to his rule. He also noted that the king has benefited from the fact that the political regimes that fell during the Arab Spring were mainly republics and presidencies, not monarchies.
Another theme Magid explores in his book is how Abdullah has implemented policies that weren’t necessarily popular with his own people, aiming to bolster his nation’s interests and maintain Washington’s support.
“Naturally, it is difficult to quantify and measure public opinion in Jordan, but it is no secret that there wasn’t any popular support for the gas agreement he signed with Israel last decade, nor for Jordan’s early airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, nor for having U.S. soldiers on Jordanian soil ahead of the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq,” he said.
In this context, the challenge of measuring Abdullah’s actual popularity became apparent to Magid during his research. “There are no opinion polls that confirm the king’s real popularity levels, so that’s a very hard question to measure,” he admitted.
Despite his survival skills, Abdullah faces significant challenges. The economic situation remains dire. “When he came to power, unemployment was at 23 percent, and that hasn’t changed much since,” Magid explained. “Many Jordanians are frustrated and trying to leave to find economic opportunities. When assuming power, he attempted to improve the economy, but little progress has been made in this context.”
There’s also another sensitive issue — the one of discrimination against Palestinians within Jordan’s political system. Magid described this as “a kind of bias and discrimination against Palestinians in parliament, which is gerrymandered to deny them from winning a majority of seats, as well as the security apparatuses.”
He noted that while this is a sensitive topic in the country, “there’s no information and no way to really know how the public feels about it; and the media keeps silent about the issue altogether.”
In past years, Abdullah has faced what seems to be the most significant political challenge from within, when reports in 2021 claimed that Prince Hamzah, his half brother, had attempted to launch some sort of coup against his rule.
“It was the most significant political challenge, but much of the information there isn’t clear even today,” Magid said, adding that in his conversations he found out that the affair is classified in the U.S., “especially Saudi Arabia’s role and its connections to Hamzah, which are shrouded in mystery.”
While some claim Saudi involvement, and others even accused Israel of being involved in one form or another, Magid noted that “nobody can confirm it.”
What the incident did prove, however, was “how popular the king is among security apparatuses and how loyal they are to him, because Hamzah would have needed support from them, too, for any such move — which ended up failing.”
Abdullah’s relationship with Israel also went through a dramatic evolution. Magid commented that, in his early years as king, Abdullah visited Israel and used a different, friendlier language than today. Magid referred to quotes from Abdullah that today would seem highly unusual, such as “I had friends in the IDF” and “Israel gained moral clarity when it withdrew from Lebanon,” commenting that he would never say these things today.
Magid holds that the second intifada changed everything. “The Palestinian death toll was high, and things never returned to normal.” He also named other factors that led to the deterioration of the relationship, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s embrace of an Israeli bodyguard who shot and killed his attacker and an innocent bystander in 2017, the cancelation of the crown prince’s planned visit to Jerusalem, as well as other events in the Holy City, which Jordan holds dear for historical and religious reasons, and the Israel-Hamas War.
Currently, there are no ambassadors on either side, and energy agreements that were supposed to be signed have stalled. Queen Rania and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi have also begun speaking out harshly against Israel.
However, Magid emphasized the need for perspective. “The Jordanian public consistently calls to cancel the peace agreement, but Abdullah refuses to do so.”
Likewise, Magid reminded that during Iran’s missile attacks against Israel, “Jordan participated in the interception of missiles, and some reports claimed that it even allowed Israel to intercept the attacks over its territory. There’s still strong security cooperation between the countries, and Jordan even served as a sort of mediator between Israel and the new Syrian regime.
“Relations are frozen, there are no meetings between the sides, but Abdullah maintains a ‘low threshold’ that he will not cross, due to national interests in terms of relations with the U.S. and security-related issues.”
Magid described Abdullah’s strong rejection of Hamas, which included the exile of its leadership from the kingdom in his very first year, as one major deviation from his father’s legacy — who opted to maintain relations with all actors in the Palestinian arena.
The author named Abdullah’s disdain toward Hamas as one of the main reasons for the recent outlawing of the Moslem Brotherhood in Jordan. “He wanted the Moslem Brotherhood to deal with internal Jordanian politics, but they aggressively pushed for action against Israel, and even smuggled weapons into the kingdom.”
Relations with Fatah are much stronger, with Magid noting that Abdullah sees the Palestinian Authority as “the main and more moderate partner,” despite Mahmoud Abbas’ poor delivery in terms of achievements for the Palestinian cause.
More on the issue of comparing Abdullah to his father, King Hussein, Magid found striking similarities in their biographies. “Both spent much time in the West, returned to Jordan, and viewed connections with Washington positively,” he noted.
However, key differences emerge in their approaches to regional politics. In addition to the Hamas relationship, the Iraqi context also revealed different philosophies: Hussein opposed the first Gulf War and resisted what he saw as Western violations of Arab sovereignty, while Abdullah allowed such developments.
Magid observed that Hussein saw himself as more of a pan-Arab leader, whereas Abdullah promoted a “Jordan First” policy. “For Abdullah, national interests are the most important, so stronger relations with the U.S. and Israel are necessary, even if less popular,” the author concluded about Abdullah’s pragmatic approach.
When asked about Jordan’s relations with the China-Russia-Iran axis as a remedy for a potential U.S. abandonment of Jordan, Magid commented: “The answer is that it’s not really a good option. Russia won’t provide aid to Jordan, and China only provides it as loans with interest.” He also pointed to significant tensions with Iran over sovereignty violations and weapons and drug smuggling through Jordan from Syria, backed by Iran. Through WikiLeaks documents, Magid discovered that Abdullah had called Iran a “nemesis,” and reminded that Abdullah was the one who coined the term “the Shia Crescent.” “He’s very suspicious of Iran, and Iran is equally suspicious of Jordan,” Magid noted.
He stressed that Jordan is not at war with any of them, and that Abdullah has met with Chinese and Russian leaders in the past. “There are political relations, but there are also tensions. It will never be a warm relationship, due to both personal and political-security contexts. If the U.S. abandons Jordan, there’s no one who will take over that vacuum.”
Looking ahead, Magid remained cautiously optimistic about Abdullah’s staying power. “It’s hard to know what will happen, but many during the Arab Spring claimed Abdullah would be next to fall — and this hasn’t happened.” He survived the intifada, the ISIS threat, the Hamzah affair, and the Syrian civil war.
“There don’t seem to be signs that they’ll try to overthrow him, and there doesn’t seem to be any risk to his rule.”
However, according to Magid, the eventual transition of power will be where the challenge lies. Regarding the crown prince, Magid noted that Abdullah has “tried to fix various mistakes about his own past,” sending Hussein to a school in Jordan, established for him, so he could grow up there. “He’s trying to make him more Jordanian, but if corruption and economic problems remain the same, it will be very dangerous for Crown Prince Hussein.”
Through his extensive research and interviews, Magid has produced what appears to be the definitive English-language account of a king who has navigated one of the world’s most volatile regions for more than two decades.
Abdullah’s survival, Magid suggested, may ultimately depend on his ability to balance competing pressures while maintaining the U.S. relationship that has been central to his reign — and his identity as the most American king in the Middle East. ◼