This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, November 8th, 2017.

I'm Caleb Brown.

A few months since the president doubled down with vocal support for Saudi Arabia,

the new Saudi Crown Prince is

undertaking a startling and dramatic shakeup in economic modernization in

leadership and institutions of the What do we know about the relationship between the Saudis and Donald Trump?

Since he came into office, Donald Trump has alienated almost every country in the world,

whether they're US allies or adversaries, with the exception of

Saudi Arabia.

Donald Trump has had a really good relationship with King Salomon and in particular with

his son, the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump had a very successful visit to the region earlier in the year.

We know that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, visited Saudi Arabia just last week and in general Trump has seemed pretty

content to basically back any policy move that the Saudis want to make.

All right so what does this house cleaning?

Describe what has occurred and what does it mean for relations with the United States, if anything?

House cleaning is certainly a nice way to put it.

So over the weekend, unexpectedly,

a number of senior Saudi Royals and major businessmen inside the kingdom were arrested on corruption charges.

And the corruption body that was created to stamp out corruption was created the same day the arrests happened.

So most observers are assuming that this was far less about corruption and far more about helping

to cement the young prince's power and in particular perhaps trying

...