Why the U.S. won't quit Saudi Arabia
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
This week, President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. At a grand White House dinner, an investment summit at the Kennedy Center and a sit-down in the Oval Office, the leaders appeared to be in lockstep.
It was a stark contrast to 2018, when the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Mohammed had approved the killing and dismemberment of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Lawmakers condemned the crown prince and withdrew support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.
Today, Elahe Izadi speaks to White House correspondent Michael Birnbaum about how the crown prince was welcomed back into the fold — and why the U.S. refuses to cut ties with Saudi Arabia.
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy with help from Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks to Annah Aschbrenner.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman used to be considered a pariah. |
| 0:08.5 | In 2018, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that he had approved the killing and |
| 0:14.3 | dismemberment of a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. |
| 0:19.2 | U.S. lawmakers condemned the crown prince. They passed a resolution |
| 0:23.9 | blaming him for Khashoggi's death, and the U.S. withdrew support from a Saudi-led war in Yemen. |
| 0:30.9 | But Muhammad bin Salman's pariah status didn't last long. |
| 0:44.8 | President Donald Trump pulled out all the stops this week for Muhammad bin Salman's first visit to the U.S. since Khashoggi's killing. |
| 0:49.5 | There was an F-35 flyover in Washington. |
| 0:56.0 | A grand White House dinner with Wall Street executives and tech CEOs. |
| 1:01.4 | He has become a true partner for peace and prosperity for our countries and for the world |
| 1:07.1 | and for peace in the Middle East. |
| 1:09.1 | An investment summit at the Kennedy Center. |
| 1:11.6 | I want to thank my friend, a great gentleman, Crown Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia, |
| 1:16.6 | for his bold leadership and deep commitment to the ties between our two countries. |
| 1:21.6 | Thank you. |
| 1:22.6 | Thank you. |
| 1:23.6 | And a sit down in the Oval Office, where Trump defended the Crown Prince when reporters |
| 1:31.3 | asked him directly about the killing. |
| 1:33.3 | As far as this gentleman is concerned, he's done a phenomenal job. |
| 1:37.3 | You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. |
| 1:41.3 | A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether |
| 1:44.5 | you like him or didn't like him, things happened, but he knew nothing about it. And we can |
... |
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