Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)
Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, is the Crown Prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia since 2017. He represents a generational break from traditional Saudi leadership: socially modernizing at home (allowing women to drive, opening cinemas) while politically authoritarian (imprisoning rivals, ordering the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi), and strategically aggressive abroad (Yemen war, anti-Iran coalition-building).
MBS rose to power by outmaneuvering older princes and placing himself as the first crown prince in Saudi history to have a realistic path to becoming king as a relatively young man, he was 31 when appointed crown prince in 2017. His Vision 2030 plan proposed diversifying the Saudi economy away from oil dependence through tourism, entertainment, and technology sectors, an acknowledgment that oil reserves may last only decades more.
His partnership with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and Middle East advisor, was arguably MBS's greatest strategic achievement of Trump's first term. Kushner's father was a major AIPAC donor and Kushner himself was close to Benjamin Netanyahu, a relationship MBS exploited to push the Abraham Accords (2020), normalizing relations between Israel and Bahrain, the UAE, Sudan, and Morocco. The implicit goal was to build a Sunni-Israeli coalition against Iran. In exchange, MBS gave Kushner extraordinary access and later invested $2 billion into Kushner's private equity fund after he left government.
His most controversial act was ordering the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. A CIA investigation concluded MBS directly ordered the killing. Trump protected him from serious consequences. The incident revealed both MBS's willingness to silence critics without restraint and the limits of US accountability over its Saudi partner.
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Who is Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)? ＋
Mohammed bin Salman is Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and effective ruler since 2017. He is modernizing Saudi social life, allowing women to drive, opening entertainment venues, while being ruthlessly authoritarian: he ordered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's assassination in 2018. His central strategic goal is to use American military power to neutralize Iran, which he sees as an existential threat to Saudi Arabia.
What is MBS's relationship with Trump and Kushner? ＋
MBS cultivated Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, as his back-channel to the White House. Through this relationship, he helped broker the Abraham Accords in 2020, normalizing Saudi-aligned Arab states with Israel against Iran. After Kushner left government, Saudi Arabia invested $2 billion in Kushner's private equity fund, suggesting the relationship was more transactional than diplomatic.