… Mohammed Bin Salman presides over the affairs of a semi-feudal theocracy that still uses the sword to behead death penalty victims—of which 338 were recorded in 2024. The country’s authorities engage in rampant abuses against people detained for political activity, including long periods of detention without charge or trial, the use of evidence extracted by torture, the denial of legal assistance, and the violation of the rights to due process and a fair trial.
Bin Salman will forever remain notorious for ordering the 2018 killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul. Thugs under Bin Salman’s orders chopped up the former Washington Post columnist’s body with a saw to remove any trace of the grisly state murder.
Trump and the billionaires allied with his administration, such as the world’s richest man Elon Musk, Open AI chief executive Sam Altman, and advanced chip maker Nvidea’s CEO Jensen Huang, attended first and foremost to make money for themselves and their business operations. As the New York Times reported, participants included executives “from tech firms, banks, consumer groups and other industries, including representatives of four of the 10 biggest U.S. companies by market value.”
Trump touted a Saudi promise to invest $600 billion into the US over the next four years—a figure that many economic experts believe is highly dubious due to Riyadh’s tight budgetary position produced by sustained low oil prices—and the sale of military equipment costing $142 billion to Riyadh. Bin Salman will undoubtedly deploy the fighter jets, missiles and other offensive weaponry supplied by Washington to suppress popular opposition to his despotic regime and wage war against its regional rivals.
Beyond the business transactions, there can be little doubt that Trump and the other American oligarchs saw in their Saudi hosts kindred spirits. They aspire to establish a dictatorship in the US to rival Bin Salman’s in lawlessness and brutality, as shown by Trump’s actions since his return to the White House and the support they enjoy in ruling circles…
He called the country “hotter” than America. America first right? What a fucking tool.
I mean…yeah, we’ve been supplying Saudi Arabia with weapons and diplomatic cover for at least 4 presidencies now. We were the ones who armed their bombing of Yemen. They were the ones on whom Ansar Allah (“the Houthi rebels”) cut their teeth.
Remember when they chopped that journalist into little pieces and everyone was like “damn that sucks please don’t do it again but no pressure though”
MBS murdered an American journalist during Trump’s first term and instead of doing anything he invited MBS to the White House…
Then when American protestors turned up, MBS had his security beat them in the DC streets, and Trump still did nothing.
So yeah, no surprises here.
