Martin Smith: The United States and Saudi Arabia have had a relationship since the time of Roosevelt, and it was a kind of oil promise in exchange for security that we would protect them. And the relationship continued, and to some degree it continues now. But under Trump, it intensified and became much more transactional, if you will. And with Trump, it’s immediately after the election, before the inauguration, the Saudis sent a team into New York to meet with Trump and they met with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, to sort of reset the relationship because they'd had a bad relationship with Obama and they wanted to set things right as they saw it. So that's sort of where we begin our story is with that initial outreach by the Saudis to Trump. And they were very encouraged by what they heard because the Trump administration was headed by businesspeople and they liked that very much.
Patrick Center: What has transpired since then?
Martin Smith: Well, what transpired since then? I mean first of all, Trump decided to accept a Saudi invitation to go there for his first foreign trip, which is unusual for any American president to go to Saudi Arabia for his first foreign trip. And it was opposed by many advisors. Usually, presidents go to Canada or Mexico first or Europe.
But the relationship was solidified. And the idea was that if and this was Jared Kushner's baby, if they could get Saudi Arabia to recognize and formalize diplomatic relations with Israel that the rest of the Arab world would follow and you'd have peace in the Middle East. So that first trip takes place.
And then immediately after that, the Crown Prince, he wasn't the Crown Prince during that trip. He was second in line or third in line, if you will. And immediately after that, he crushes his rival. his cousin, MBN, Mohammed bin Nayef. And then he goes on to arrest and jail a lot of people that were considered dissidents. And then ultimately you get to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, who was writing critical columns in the Washington Post.
All during this time, the Trump administration stood by the Saudis. They said it was too important. The relationship was too important. And so human rights abuses be damned. They kept the relationship running.
Patrick Center: Throughout this 90-minute documentary, you pull in different voices and there are those who are critical of MBS providing a different perspective of what is taking place in this relationship.
Martin Smith: Yeah, well, there is this idea that if an authoritarian leader, which Mohammed bin Salman is, that if you provide support to him, that you're encouraging his worst behavior, that he thinks he can get away with it, ultimately getting away with murder and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. And so throughout, they decide to stand by Saudi Arabia as part of an America First agenda that you don't want to rock that boat. You want to keep them on your side and you're still hoping that they will recognize Israel.
Well, that all fell apart starting on October 7th with the Hamas attack, a horrendous attack by Hamas on Israel, and then the horrendous retaliation on Gaza, resulting in thousands of deaths. And so Saudi Arabia never did sign on to recognizing Israel, especially after that.
Patrick Center: There is this idea of transforming the Middle East, which no one in American leadership has been able to get their arms around.
Martin Smith: You know, it's Mohammed bin Salman is an interesting character because he is a modernizer. He has loosened restrictions on women. He has allowed citizens to attend movies, to listen to music. I mean, when he took over, things were, as they had been for decades, very restricted.
On the other hand, he didn't give freedom to critics. He didn't allow freedom of speech. Due process in courts was not loosened. I mean, they pretty much operate as they wish. And so that became very disappointing to a lot of people, including all human rights experts and including Jamal Khashoggi, who was writing for the Washington Post.
So, while on the one hand, he was a reformer, on the other hand, he was continuing a very harsh crackdown on his people.
Patrick Center: Through this vision for a new Saudi Arabia, and you mentioned the transactional relationship, what develops the arms deals for investments? What do we see?
Martin Smith: After the first term ends, Jared Kushner sets up a new business in private equity, something he had no experience in. But he sets this up and immediately gets a $2 billion infusion from the Saudis. And the Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin, also goes in, gets a billion dollars. And increasingly over the second term, Trump, the Trump organization run by his two sons, Don Jr. and Eric, set up a lot of lucrative licenses licensing deals, licensing the Trump name on various real estate projects. There's crypto and they rake in lots of money in the second term.
And the feeling was that they had resisted this in the first term because of appearances of conflicts of interest. In the second term, their attitude was, we're going to be criticized anyway so why don't we just go ahead and take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of us?
Patrick Center: Does some of this take place, you say just go ahead and do it anyway, because Congress does not investigate any of these deals?
Martin Smith: Exactly right. I mean, Congress is not willing to take on Trump, but we've seen that on many fronts. Republican controlled House and Senate have just not found it egregious enough to want to hold hearings and question the activities. So, money has continued to flow from the Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia, into the pockets of the Trump administration.
Patrick Center: Where does this position the Trump family moving forward in the Middle East and also in dealings here in the United States?
Martin Smith: You know, it's an interesting fact that when Trump became president in his second term, he didn't have a lot in the bank. Now he has made over this period of time, tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. So, it's enriched them tremendously.
Patrick Center: You've been covering the Middle East and the U.S.-Saudi relationship for over more than 20 years, and you interview over 100 people. What is it that you're hearing from most everyone you talk with?
Martin Smith: Well, the ambitions of Kushner were unrealistic to begin with and that, you know, he had no experience in diplomacy. He pretty much ignored advice that he was getting from previous diplomats because he said, look, they didn't solve any problems. So, I'm going to take this on.
I think the hubris is what I want people to understand. I want people to see the confidence and hubris that was brought to the Middle East by somebody who had no knowledge, as he admits in the documentary of Saudi Arabia at all. He said, only what I've read and heard, I didn't know anything about Saudi Arabia.
So, he takes on, you The Middle East is a complicated, ever-changing place. And now we're in a worse place than we were when Trump first came to office in 2017, unfortunately.
Patrick Center: What would you like viewers to take away from this documentary?
Martin Smith: Well, in a sense, we're raking the leaves of a lot of reporting that we've done over the years and getting it all together and putting everything in context. I think it's good for people to understand the depth of this relationship and also the ambitions that drove it. And in the end, after October 7th and the Hamas attack on Israel and then the war in Gaza, everything fell apart.
There was this idea that Kushner had was that you get everybody to recognize Israel, you get them to do business together. He had a slogan, peace through prosperity, but it ignored ethnic and religious differences. You just can't buy your way through all of that thicket. And so, in the end, everything that all the ambitions sort of went by the wayside.
And now Trump is stuck joining Bibi Netanyahu in a war in Iran that he can't figure out how to get out of. So, it all kind of looked good in the beginning that they were going to have these relationships and make peace in the Middle East. It's fallen apart.
Patrick Center: Frontline presents The Crown Prince & the President. It airs tonight at 10 o'clock on WGVU Public Television. Award-winning correspondent, writer and producer Martin Smith. As always, we thank you for your time.
Martin Smith: Thank you very much for having me.