Claiming that Gulf nations were working closely with the United States in the ongoing war against Iran, President Donald Trump crassly commented about Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), saying, “he didn’t think he would be kissing my a**.”
Trump made the remarks while addressing the Saudi-backed Future Investment Initiative (FII) Priority Summit in Miami on Friday, March 27.
Recounting a conversation he had with the Crown Prince, Trump praised the Kingdom’s de facto ruler, saying he is “really smart but a regular kind of a guy” who reportedly said the US was a dead country before Trump came into power.
“A year ago, he said you (US) were a dead country, but now you’re literally the hottest country anywhere in the world,” the US President said, adding, “and that was before we beat the hell out of Iran.”
“He didn’t think this was going to happen. He didn’t think he’d be kissing my a**,” Trump said. “He really didn’t, and he thought that I would be just another American President who was a loser, where the country is going downhill, but now he has to be nice to me.”
“You tell him, he’d better be nice to me. He’s gotta be,” he added.
The US President then said that Saudi Arabia should be proud of their leader because “he’s got a lot of titles.”
“He’s the Crown Prince. He’s the Prime Minister. He’s the future king. He’s got about seven other titles,” Trump said. “I said, you have more titles than any human being on earth. He’s everything, and he deserves to be because he’s a winner.”
MBS wants US to continue war with Iran
His remarks come in the backdrop of a report that documented MBS privately urging Donald Trump to continue the American-Israeli military campaign against Iran, framing the conflict as a “historic opportunity” to reshape West Asia.
In a series of conversations over the past week, Mohammed bin Salman allegedly pushed back against any suggestion of winding down the offensive. He argued, according to people briefed by American officials, that Iran’s government poses a permanent threat to the Gulf, one that cannot be managed through diplomacy but only ended through regime change.
He is said to have gone further, advocating US ground operations inside Iran and a military seizure of Kharg Island, the hub through which most of Iran’s oil exports flow.
Trump has, in recent days, given more serious consideration to such an operation, potentially involving airborne army units or a Marine amphibious assault.
