President Trump pulled out all the stops to welcome Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to the White House today for a glitzy visit, complete with cannons, a flyover, Saudi flags draped across the White House and a horse procession on the South Lawn.
This evening, the Trumps will host the crown prince for a formal black-tie dinner.
📹 Watch the splashy welcome
"We have an extremely well-respected man in the Oval Office today," Trump said, lauding the crown prince as a "very good friend" whom he's "very proud of."
"We inherited a mess. You actually told me you thought the country was in big trouble," Trump said, describing the pair's meeting. "I'm not going to use the exact word you used. I refuse to say that you thought our country was dead a year-and-a-half, two years ago."
Trump's goal: To sign economic and defense agreements with the Saudi leader. They're also likely to discuss Israel's war in Gaza, artificial intelligence and military ties.
The U.S.-Saudi relationship has come a long way the past several years: Former President Biden once called Saudi Arabia a "pariah" after Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
U.S. intelligence determined that the crown prince, known by his initials MBS, had approved the killing. Biden, in a push to aid bilateral relations, later greeted the crown prince with a fist-bump in Jeddah in a move widely criticized given Saudi Arabia's human rights record.
💬 Follow today's live blog
Read more: '3 things to watch as Trump hosts Saudi's crown prince at White House'
No comments:
Post a Comment