'Not a thing': Conservative writer takes on what Trump likes most about Saudi culture
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....