"Saudi leaders and financiers took center stage at a lavish White House party and a star-studded US-Saudi business summit that ended with President Donald Trump designating Saudi Arabia as a "major non-NATO ally," worthy to be given F-35 warplanes and other perks."
"He did the same in his first administration-and that was before the Saudi government gave Jared Kushner $2 billion to invest on its behalf, among many other favors dispensed to Trump's family and inner circle of supporters. What seems different this time around-as with many other abuses of power and corrupt self-dealing during Trump's second term- is the fulsome nature of the MAGA-Saudi bond, driven home in the Trump administration's willingness to basically celebrate murder and graft."
"On Tuesday, during an appearance with MBS in the newly decorated, gilt-covered Oval Office, Trump was asked about the former Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in October 2018 in a Saudi consulate in Turkey by a Saudi government hit squad, widely believed to have been directed by MBS. As MBS stared placidly at the ground, Trump immediately sprang to his defense. "He's done a phenomenal job," Trump said about the monarch seated beside him."
A lavish White House party and US-Saudi business summit culminated in Saudi Arabia being designated a "major non-NATO ally," with promises of F-35 warplanes and other perks. The US-Saudi relationship has long been transactional, trading protection for oil while ignoring democracy and human-rights abuses. The Trump administration intensified that transactional bond, including substantial financial dealings involving Jared Kushner, and displayed a readiness to overlook or even celebrate corruption and violence. Jamal Khashoggi's 2018 murder by a Saudi hit squad remains central, yet Trump publicly defended Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a joint Oval Office appearance.
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