Dear Editor:

Mohammad bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, was warmly received at the White House last week for negotiations on a wide range of issues. Once a global pariah, MBS is now one of President Donald J. Trump’s closest partners in the international real estate business.

His nickname, “Mohammad Bone Saw,” derives from the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a legal permanent resident of Virginia, a reporter for The Washington Post, and a critic of pervasive corruption within the Saudi government. His body was never recovered for burial after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — it was sawed into pieces and incinerated.

Back then, Trump’s State Department ignored the finding of U.S. Intelligence agencies that this brutal assassination was ordered by bin Salman; now it is has agreed to transfer nuclear technology, sell F-35 fighters, and collaborate with the Saudis on AI (or as our education secretary calls it, “A-1”).

Sixteen of the 19 hijackers responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on 9/11 were Saudis. The CIA and the MI6 concluded that the Saudi royal government was involved in these attacks.

Family members of 9/11 victims have been working ceaselessly for 22 years to bring a federal lawsuit against bin Salman’s government for their criminal complicity. Three months ago, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels ruled that there is sufficient evidence to show that two of the attack planners were employees of the Saudi government and are living there today.

Of course, none of this matters to President Donald J. Trump. His first overseas trip in 2017 was to Saudi Arabia, where he and Steve Bannon, swords over their shoulders, danced awkwardly with King Salman. The first foreign leader Trump visited in his second term was Mohammad bin Salman.

These stunts were not merely symbolic: the Trump family has made serious money in the Kingdom since then. The Saudi sovereign investment fund deposited $2,000,000,000 in Jared Kushner’s private equity firm; the construction of Trump Tower Jeddah is underway; and Trump Organization branding for several other “giga-projects” in Saudi Arabia is soon to be announced.

Red-carpet legitimization of war criminal Vladimir Putin and human-rights violator Mohammad bin Salman have now been added to the Trump portfolio. Might makes right.

Bill Hammond

Boothbay