Trump: Saudi crown prince ‘a great guy’

Former President Trump says the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who faces unrelenting criticism over his government’s human rights record, is a “great guy.”

“I think it’s fine right now,” Trump said of the U.S.-Saudi Arabia relationship in a recent interview with Al Arabiya. “When I was president, it was great with capital letters. G-R-E-A-T, great.”

“And 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,” he continued.

In the interview with Al Arabiya’s Washington Bureau Chief Nadia Bilbassy-Charters, Trump later added that the crown prince is a “great guy” who is “respected all over the world.”

Earlier this year, the Trump Organization announced it would be building a Trump Tower building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The building is the Trump Organization’s first development in the country and is in partnership with a Saudi-owned developer.

The development may resurface concerns about Trump’s conflicts of interest if he is reelected in November.

The Saudi government has also invested $2 billion with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The crown prince said last year that Kushner’s private equity fund would not be affected by a second Trump term.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia was defeated in its bid for a seat on the United Nation’s premier human rights body after a group campaigned against the country’s abysmal record on the issue.

In the recent interview, Trump was asked about his 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia and the relationship between the two countries as the war in the Middle East continues, threatening relations in the region. In response, he criticized President Biden’s 2022 trip to the Middle East, when a fist-bump with Prince Mohammed drew widespread criticism.

Trump argued U.S.-Saudi relations could “never be great with a guy like Biden” and he also doesn’t think the relationship would be good if Vice President Harris wins the election.

He also reiterated a claim that Hamas would not have attacked Israel last October and the ensuing war would not be happening if he were president.