Trump secretly held talks with Saudi crown prince: NYT's Maggie Haberman
Former President Donald Trump had a recent discussion with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
According to The New York Times, "It was unclear what the two men discussed and whether it was their only conversation since Mr. Trump’s departure from the White House. Neither representatives for Mr. Trump nor an official of the Saudi government responded to requests for comment. But news of their discussion comes at a time when the Biden administration is engaged in delicate negotiations with the Saudis aimed at establishing a lasting peace in the Middle East, building on diplomatic ties between Israel and a number of Arab states forged through the work of the Trump administration."
This comes amid suspicion that the Saudi government intends to work against Biden's re-election. It also comes as a major Saudi real estate developer has inked a deal with the Trump Organization for a villa and golf project worth $4 billion.
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"Mr. Trump has other reasons to maintain warm relations with Prince Mohammed. The former president and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and former senior White House adviser, established close ties with the crown prince while in office and have capitalized on that good will in their private businesses since leaving government," noted Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. "Saudi Arabia was the first stop on Mr. Trump’s first foreign trip as president — a sign of the value Mr. Trump placed on the relationship. Mr. Trump pursued major deals with the Saudis, including arms sales, and he defended Prince Mohammed at his moment of greatest international pressure, after the C.I.A. concluded that the crown prince had ordered the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018."
Meanwhile, the report said, "Mr. Kushner has benefited from Prince Mohammed’s support on an even larger scale. Only six months after leaving government, Mr. Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, secured $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in what was described in internal documents as a 'strategic relationship' with Mr. Kushner. A panel of advisers to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund had recommended against investing with Mr. Kushner, citing his lack of experience, but Prince Mohammed overruled them."
Trump has been hosting other world leaders too, the report noted, including the recent visit of Hungary's far-right leader Viktor Orbán to the former president's estate in Florida.