On the Donald J. Trump Highway – the road that leads to Western Sahara, between Tiznit and Dakhla – truck drivers often make their first stop at kilometer 18. Rest areas become scarcer after that, once the asphalt plunges into the desert expanses. In the small douar (rural village) of Bounaamane, nestled among argan trees, a brand-new gas station opened less than two years ago, complete with a convenience store, grill restaurant, butcher shop, café with a terrace and car wash.

This late October morning, Mohammed, who did not want to give his last name, said he was won over. "Happy, even," he smiled, bundled up in a purple sweater as the sun was still slow to warm the arid lands of southern Morocco. The road, he said, "is a thousand times better than before." For him, journeys have become much less exhausting since the old National Route 1 – "narrow, often covered with sand and worn down by heavy trucks" – was turned into a two-lane road in each direction, with speed limits on some stretches reaching 100 kilometers per hour.

The opening of the new expressway, completed at the end of 2024, reportedly even prompted businesses to use the route again to reach southern Morocco and Western Sahara. Rabat calls this territory its "Southern Provinces," but it is disputed by pro-independence members of the Polisario Front, who are supported by Algeria and classified by the United Nations as a "non-self-governing territory."

"It's undeniable, we save between five and six hours of travel time," said Amer Zghinou, president of the Association marocaine des transports routiers intercontinentaux [Moroccan Association of Intercontinental Road Transport], reached by phone. "Our savings on fuel are considerable, on the order of 300 to 400 liters of diesel per trip," in other words, almost a full tank depending on the trucks. "It's quite an achievement," the group leader continued, "which is also helping open up the South."