From his gold-plated aesthetics to his love for fossil fuels to his random interventions in the economy to his attempts to exercise power in his neighborhood to his authoritarian mindset, it is clear that Trump views MBS as a role model for his administration. What can we learn from the analogy?
First, given that the PIF has lost a lot of money, according to the NYT, Trump’s desire to direct the economy probably won’t end well. Second, it is worth noting that MBS is attempting to use his arbitrary power to bring Saudi Arabia kicking and screaming into the 21st century; Trump, on the other hand, prefers the society and the economy of 1950. Finally, Trump hasn’t ordered the killing of journalists or locked his oligarchs in a hotel and demanded money from them, but as he says, things happen.