• Yesterday’s post: What’s the difference between a journalist and a writer?
Mohammed bin Salman arrived in the White House yesterday to an effective celebration of all of the Saudi money flowing to the Trump family and to the ever-growing network of Trump corporate supporters.
To recap: MBS, when he was yet the underling of his half-brother in his claim to the House of Saudi throne, was one of the first foreign visitors to the Trump White House in 2017. Then, Saudi Arabia became the new president’s first foreign excursion. And then, in an effective family coup supported by the White House, MBS leapt over his half-brother and other would-be contenders in his family and grabbed total power in the kingdom for himself. Not long after, with nary an objection from the White House, MBS rounded up his relatives who might otherwise threaten him, or who had amassed assets out of reach, and hung them by their thumbs until they pledged their loyalty and disgorged their gains.