All posts tagged "Mbs"

President Donald Trump found himself to be a popular figure among Saudi Arabia's young adults during his four-day Middle Eastern tour.

According to The New York Times, "Citizens of the conservative Islamic kingdom say that Mr. Trump feels familiar to them. His family’s fluid melding of business and politics is the norm in Saudi Arabia — a country in which the Trump Organization has significant business interests and where government officials sit on the boards of listed companies."

The piece continued, "His reliance on relatives and friends to advise him and shape policy is unremarkable in Riyadh. And the conservative rhetoric he has adopted — in particular, his attacks on transgender people and reassertion of traditional gender norms — resonates with many in the kingdom."...

The Bulwark's Bill Kristol argued in a new piece Wednesday that it made perfect sense for Donald Trump to spend his first international trip of his second term in Saudi Arabia because he admires the kingdom's iron fist of repression so very much.

Kristol wrote that Trump appearing among the "autocrats and plutocrats and kleptocrats" hosted by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was exactly the image Trump wanted circulated around the world: American strongman holds court with a despot in one of the world's "most unfree" nations.

“I like him a lot. I like him too much,” the president said of his "friend" MBS, despite Saudi Arabia's proven ties to 9/11 and the gruesome murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The U.S. has “no stronger partner," Trump said of the kingdom before shoring up at least $600 billion in Saudi investment pledges....

President Donald Trump's favorite TV host Mark Levin was unhappy with the opulent spectacle taking place during Trump's visit of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Levin has been an outspoken Trump supporter on his "Life, Liberty & Levin" show on Fox, and has hosted Trump for sit-down interviews. In April, Trump appointed Levin to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, led by Secretary Kristi Noem.

But Levin wasn't pulling punches when he posted his displeasure to social media over Trump's Middle Eastern trip. ...

President Donald Trump saluted each Saudi Arabian general who greeted him during his visit to Riyadh Tuesday, causing critics to melt down over the spectacle.

Standing next to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump was seen saluting and shaking hands as the long line of generals waited to greet the American president.

Journalist and former UN diplomat Olga Nesterova pointed out, "Trump goes ahead and salutes every single Saudi official at the Royal Court in Riyadh." ...

The U.S. is no longer requiring Saudi Arabia to formally recognize Israel in order to move forward on nuclear cooperation talks, according to Reuters.

The move is considered to be a "major concession by Washington."

"Under former President Joe Biden, nuclear talks were an element of a wider U.S.-Saudi deal tied to normalization and to Riyadh's goal of a defense treaty with Washington," Reuters reported....

Washington (AFP) - US President Joe Biden said Saturday he aims to "strengthen a strategic partnership" with Saudi Arabia during a controversial visit there next week, but added that he will hold true to "fundamental American values." "I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. My views on human rights are clear and long-standing, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip," Biden wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece published Saturday. While Biden is expected to press for increased Saudi......