Washington — President Trump welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, to the White House with an elaborate military display Tuesday, praising the crown prince and insisting the U.S.-Saudi relationship has never been better as the two countries look to sign major business and national security deals.
The pomp and circumstance — and the president’s praise and warmth toward MBS — were more typical of a visit from an allied Western democracy than an absolute monarchy with a troubled human rights record, pointing to the president’s focus on economic and business ties above virtually all else.
The White House arrival ceremony for the crown prince was laden with fanfare, complete with a U.S. military flyover, cannons, horses, and a red carpet. American and Saudi flags adorned the White House South Lawn, and a military band greeted the Saudi royal. Mr. Trump and the crown prince exchanged greetings as they shook hands, and then watched the formation of F-35 and F-16 fighter jets fly by before going inside the White House.
Ahead of bin Salman’s arrival, Mr. Trump told reporters Monday that the U.S. would sell F-35 fighter jets to the Saudis. In the Oval Office, MBS said the Saudis will increase a planned investment of $600 million in the U.S. to closer to $1 trillion, an announcement that pleased Mr. Trump greatly.
Mr. Trump praised the crown prince in the Oval Office, calling him a “very good friend” and insisting his record on human rights is commendable, despite the State Department’s long list of concerns of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. Arbitrary and unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, serious restrictions on freedom of expression and restrictions on religious freedom continue to plague the nation, according to the latest 2024 State Department report.
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The trip to the White House visit is the crown prince’s first U.S. visit since Washington Post journalist and human rights activist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in 2018 in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul by members of the Saudi government. The president has smoothed over relations with the Saudis since the CIA assessed about a month after Khashoggi’s killing that the crown prince had ordered it.
Bin Salman has denied any involvement, but he told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in a 2019 “60 Minutes” interview, “I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.”
The Biden administration later released the Trump-era intelligence report concluding the crown prince “approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Bin Salman was asked about Khashoggi directly in the Oval Office Tuesday, giving U.S. reporters a rare chance to question the future king. “About the journalist, it’s really painful to hear that anyone losing his life for no real purpose,” MBS said.
The crown prince sought to distance the Saudi government from the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, as families of the attacks criticize the White House for inviting him. Bin Salman said he feels “painful about families of 9/11 in America,” but claimed Osama bin Laden used the Saudi people to “destroy” the American-Saudi relationship. Allegations that members of the Saudi government had links to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers have circulated for years, drawing vehement denials from Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Trump criticized members of the media for some of the questions.
“We have an extremely respected man in the Oval Office today and a friend of mine for a long time, a very good friend of mine,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m very proud of the job, what he’s done is incredible in terms of human rights and everything else.”
Tuesday evening, there will be a black-tie dinner with bin Salman. There are 120 invited guests, according to a person familiar with the planning, and 30 will be from the Saudi delegation. Although it’s not a state dinner, it is the first formal dinner hosted by Mr. Trump in his second term to honor a nation’s leader. Bin Salman’s father, Salman bin Abdulaziz, is technically the head of state of the kingdom, but he delegated his duties as ruler to MBS in 2017.
“We’re more than meeting,” Mr. Trump said Friday of the visit. “We’re honoring Saudi Arabia.”
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A senior administration official said the president will be making announcements regarding Saudi investment in U.S. AI infrastructure, enhanced cooperation on civil nuclear energy, defense sales and the fulfillment of the Saudis’ $600 billion investment pledge, which was announced during the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia in May.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly called the trip “an official working visit” in a statement and said, “Americans can expect more good deals for our country spanning technology, manufacturing, critical minerals, defense, and more.”
Mr. Trump is also planning to attend a Saudi business summit in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. An invitation previously obtained by CBS News said the event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will be co-hosted by the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia and the U.S.-Saudi Business Council.
Mr. Trump and his son-in-law and former top White House adviser Jared Kushner have fostered close relationships with the Saudis and the crown prince in particular, viewing them as critical partners for both security and business in a turbulent Middle East. The president said the Abraham Accords — an agreement from his first term that normalized diplomatic relations between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE — would be a big topic of discussion during the visit.
“The Abraham Accords will be a part we’re going to be discussing,” Mr. Trump said over the weekend. “I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords fairly shortly. We’ve had tremendous interest in the Abraham Accords since we put Iran out of business.”
Mr. Trump recently told “60 Minutes” contributing correspondent Norah O’Donnell that he thought bin Salman would join the agreement, although the Saudis have indicated that would not happen without a path to Palestinian statehood.
The Trumps also have extensive and longheld personal business ties in Saudi Arabia. Last year, the Trump Organization announced plans for the development of a Trump Tower in Jeddah, a major Saudi city along the Red Sea.
Eric Trump, the president’s son and the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told Reuters that the Trump Organization also has plans for a Trump-branded property in Riyadh.
And Kushner started a private equity firm, Affinity Partners, which received a reported $2 billion investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund controlled by bin Salman.
Asked about the potential conflicts of interest given his family business ties, Mr. Trump insisted Tuesday,”I have nothing to do with the family business.”
Criticism of human rights record
Following the killing of Khashoggi, Mr. Trump did not seek to punish bin Salman personally during his first administration and said he viewed Saudi Arabia as a “great ally,” noting the economic ties between the U.S. and the Saudis. The Trump administration did sanction 19 Saudi nationals over the killing.
“Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Mr. Trump posted on social media in November 2018.
“That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran.”
Human rights advocates are dismayed about the treatment bin Salman is expected to receive in Washington, not only because of Khashoggi’s murder, but also because of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record under bin Salman.
“We know President Trump won’t ask MBS to reveal where Jamal’s remains are so his family can finally bury him,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now, an organization Khashoggi founded months before he was killed. “But the least he can do — the absolute minimum — is publicly press MBS to release the dozens of activists, writers and reformers languishing in Saudi prisons for the ‘crime’ of speaking freely.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director at DAWN, called bin Salman’s journey from castigation over Khashoggi’s murder to a high-profile White House welcome an “extraordinary political feat.” And that’s not just because of Mr. Trump’s gestures of friendship toward the crown prince. Whitson mentioned the “fist bump seen around the world,” as former President Joe Biden warmly greeted Khashoggi in Riyadh during his presidency “hat in hand.”
“We went from the Biden administration narrowly sanctioning Mohamamd bin Salman himself for the murder of Khashoggi … to now welcoming him into Washington and not only sort of feting him for whatever lucrative deals he can pass to American businesses, but also to potentially actually help as a stabilizing force,” Whitson said.
