Donald Trump has never been shy about proclaiming his affection for various dictators and right-wing authoritarians. One individual he has consistently praised since his time in office? Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the ex-president dubbed a “great guy” in a recent interview, despite the minor manner of that whole bone-saw-murder business.
Appearing on Saudi state-owned TV network Al Arabiya, Trump said that while the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States is “fine right now,” when he was president, “it was great with capital letters. G-R-E-A-T, great.” (Yes, he actually spelled it out.) Trump added that he has “so much respect for the king, so much respect for Mohammed, who is doing great. I mean, he’s really a visionary. He’s done things that nobody else would have even thought about.” Later in the interview, he declared MBS a “great guy” who is “respected all over the world.”
Just so it’s clear, the man Trump claims is a “great guy” and “respected all over the world” is the same person who, according to the CIA, approved the 2018 assassination of US resident and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, which involved luring Khashoggi to the consulate in Istanbul, murdering him, and dismembering him via bone saw. (The Saudi government has long claimed MBS had nothing to do with the grisly murder, a claim that the UN does not believe either.)
In 2020, Bob Woodward revealed in his book Rage that the then president had bragged about protecting MBS following Khashoggi’s assassination. According to Woodward, after being informed that “The people at the [Washington] Post are upset about the Khashoggi killing,” Trump responded: “I saved his ass. I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.”
Why the continued praise? We’ll give you two guesses but you’ll probably only need one. Per The Hill:
The Saudi government also cut a $2 billion check for former first son-in-law Jared Kushner’s investment fund in 2022; earlier this year, Kushner called MBS “a visionary leader” who has “done a lot of things that have made the world a better place.”