Former President Donald J. Trump recently spoke with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, their first public conversation since Trump left office in January 2021, according to two people briefed on the conversation who were not authorized to speak. public. about that.
It was unclear what the two men discussed and whether it was their only conversation since Mr. Trump left the White House. Neither representatives of Mr. Trump nor a Saudi government official responded to requests for comment.
But news of their discussion comes as the Biden administration has been engaged in delicate negotiations with the Saudis aimed at cementing a lasting peace in the Middle East, building on diplomatic ties between Israel and some Arab states forged through its work Trump administration.
If President Biden succeeds in concluding a tripartite package—which would likely include a Saudi-Israeli peace accord, an Israeli commitment to a two-state solution, a US-Saudi defense treaty, and US-Saudi agreements on a civilian nuclear program in Saudi Arabia — would need support from two-thirds of senators to ratify the US-Saudi treaty. Mr. Trump, as the presumptive Republican nominee who firmly commands his party, could potentially either block any deal or greenlight it for congressional Republicans.
Mr Trump has other reasons for maintaining warm relations with Prince Mohammed. The former president and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and a former senior White House adviser, forged close ties with the crown prince while in office and have capitalized on that goodwill in their private businesses since leaving government.
Saudi Arabia was the first stop on Mr Trump’s first trip abroad as president – a sign of the value Mr Trump placed on the relationship. Mr Trump has pursued major deals with the Saudis, including arms sales, and defended Prince Mohammed at a time of heightened international pressure after the CIA concluded the crown prince had ordered the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
Nine months after the assassination, Mr Trump called Prince Mohammed “my friend” and praised the “spectacular job” he had done in liberalizing Saudi Arabia’s laws, including allowing women to drive. While still in office, Mr Trump told reporter Bob Woodward that he “saved his ass” when Prince Mohammed was under fire from officials in the US Congress.
“I managed to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop,” Mr Trump added.
For his part, Mr. Biden promised during his 2020 campaign to treat Prince Mohammed as an “outcast” because of Mr. Khashoggi’s murder. Once in office, however, he concluded that it was not viable to oust the Saudi crown prince, and his team sought to repair the rift in the relationship.
Since leaving the presidency, Mr. Trump has made use of his Saudi connections. As he prepared to announce his presidential campaign in November 2022, the Trump Organization was putting the final touches on a deal with the government of Oman and a Saudi company for a multibillion-dollar real estate development in Oman. . Mr. Trump has also partnered with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to host the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour at some of its golf courses.
Mr. Kushner benefited from Prince Mohammed’s support on an even larger scale. Just six months after leaving the administration, Mr. Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, secured $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in what internal documents described as a “strategic relationship” with Mr. .Kushner. A group of advisers to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund had suggested against investing in Mr Kushner, citing his lack of experience, but Prince Mohammed rejected them.
The crown prince of Saudi Arabia is not the only foreign leader Mr. Trump has engaged with recently. Last month, he hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for a meeting, their second in two years. A person close to Mr Trump said it was Mr Orban who sought the meeting.
At some of his rallies, Mr Trump praised Mr Orban – who has been criticized for eroding democratic institutions in Hungary – as an admirably strong leader.
