Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) smiles a lot. He's a sophisticated, Machiavellian Trump. He can be charming, he can be bloodthirsty. Cunning. The international community accused him of ordering the dismemberment of the correspondent of the Washington PostJamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen, was also accused of spying on and blackmailing Western leaders and politicians. For a time, he was isolated. But Saudi Arabia has too much economic and geostrategic relevance: it has oil, it's an enemy of Iran, there were the failed Abraham Accords to normalize relations between the Arab world and Israel, there are the military bases... Joe Biden already went to Riyadh to rehabilitate him.
As always, Trump has doubled down and taken things to a whole new level: the current US president admires ruthless, ultra-rich, authoritarian men with unlimited ambition. Tough guys. Like him. Men who feel above good and evil. "Things happen," Trump said this Tuesday, unfazed, when asked about Khashoggi's murder, while calling ABC's question a "disgrace." Then, when the same journalist asked him about the Epstein case, he threatened to revoke the network's license. For Trump, journalists are easily despised. The right to information? The fourth estate, once a pillar of democracy, bothers him. He doesn't hide it. On the contrary.
In contrast, he considers the new, unchecked, autocratic rulers worthy of admiration. The murdered correspondent must have gotten involved where he wasn't wanted... Bin Salman "is a great friend, a very respected person. I'm very proud of the work he's done. It's incredible what he's done in terms of human rights," Trump has said. And Khashoggi? And the increase in executions reported this year by Human Rights Watch: 241 in the first seven months of this year? Nothing. "Things happen." Trump, to the rescue of a billionaire Arab autocrat. Without a hint of shame, mixing personal (including family businesses) and diplomatic relationships. This time he has taken a giant step to rehabilitate it: a red carpet at the White House, unwavering political and personal support, and the announcement that he will authorize the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
In the fashionable political essay, The hour of the predators, by Giuliano da Empoli, the author provides a stark portrait of modus operandi MBS, a refined predator of politics and business. Trump, always more explicit and clumsy, is also part of the club of predators who are shaking up geopolitics, abolishing the written and unwritten rules of global diplomacy that emerged after the Second World War. Also included in this league, with full honors, are the lords of the techMessianic figures armed with their polarizing algorithms. All of them—politicians and media moguls—are men of action, of power; threatening if necessary, always seductive.
This, if any proof were needed, has been made even clearer by the reception Trump gave the Saudi prince in Washington. An alliance of predators in the Oval Office. The camaraderie displayed by Trump and MBS, predators of power, offers clues as to where the new world is headed.
