A pariah no more, he's Trump's pal

Saudi crown prince, whom CIA implicated in journalist's death, is celebrated in D.C.

- BY NABIH BULOS

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS AFP/Getty Images PRESIDENT TRUMP greets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday at the White House.

Seven years ago, he was virtually persona non grata, any link to him considered kryptonite among U.S. political and business elite for his alleged role in the killing of a Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic.

But when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to Washington this week, he cemented a remarkable comeback, positioning himself as the linchpin of a new regional order in the Middle East, and his country as an essential partner in America's AI-driven future.

During what amounted to a state visit, the crown prince Saudi Arabia's de facto leader was given the literal red carpet treatment: A Marine band, flag-bearing horsemen and a squadron of F-35s in the skies above; a black-tie dinner attended by a raft of business leaders in the prince's honor; a U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center the next day.

Throughout, Bin Salman (or MBS, as many call him) proved himself a keen practitioner of the brand of transactional politics favored by President Trump.

He fulfilled Trump's ask, first floated back in May during the Riyadh edition of the U.S.-Saudi Forum, to up the kingdom's U.S. investment commitments from $600 million to almost $1 trillion.

And the prince managed to mollify Trump in his oft-repeated call for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, the normalization pacts with Israel brokered during the president's first term, even while changing nothing of his long-stated position: That establishing ties with Israel be accompanied by steps toward Palestinian statehood an outcome many in Israel's political class reject.