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When the fabulously rich kings of Saudi Arabia receive presidents from the United States, they don’t spoil themselves. They show their power. It is a tradition. In 1945 King Ibn Saud appeared with slaves, a soothsayer and sheep for his meeting with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Ibn Saud was the founder of modern Saudi Arabia; the conversation with Roosevelt was the first meeting between a Saudi monarch and a president of the United States. Among the gifts were Arab clothes, perfume and a golden knife.
When Donald Trump left for his first trip abroad in May 2017, which also took him to Saudi Arabia, the rulers of Riyadh gave him a welcome as from Arabian Nights.
The heirs of the strict founder of the state welcomed Trump and his entourage with a saber dance. There were other gifts too: a bronze model of a fork-tailed sea cow, leather sandals, and a silver censer.
When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received this Sunday in Neom, his city of the future on the Red Sea, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave up on that glitz.
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