The White House welcome bestowed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman , was the most lavish of the Trump presidency, and a gaudily clear statement of its foreign policy priorities.

It was billed as a mere working visit, but it was more extravagant than any previous state visit. The president greeted the prince on the south lawn, the White House’s biggest stage. There were uniformed men on horses bearing flags and a flypast of fighter jets.

Once inside the newly gilded Oval Office, Trump came across as a man besotted. He grabbed at the prince’s hand and declared more than once what an honour it was to lay claim to the royal friendship. When a journalist pierced this golden bubble by raising the 2018 murder and dismemberment of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi –

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