Premieres Tuesday, June 30, 2026 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream with KPBS+
Months into his second term, President Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House. It had been seven years since a Saudi hit squad murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in an operation U.S. intelligence assessed MBS had approved.
Now, Trump hailed MBS as a friend who had been “incredible in terms of human rights and everything else” — and the two men announced from the Oval Office that Saudi Arabia planned to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S.
What is behind the Trump-MBS alliance, and what are the ramifications for the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the Middle East as a whole? Answers unfold in "The Crown Prince & the President," a new, 90-minute FRONTLINE documentary from an award-winning team that includes correspondent, writer and producer Martin Smith; writer and producer Marcela Gaviria; and co-producers Scott Anger and Jennifer Brooks.
“The Crown Prince & the President is based on over 100 interviews I have done in the U.S. and abroad,” says Smith, who has covered the U.S.-Saudi relationship for more than 20 years. “Our investigation is an incisive look at the forces binding the two men and their countries together, and what each stands to gain — from ambitions for a new Middle East, to arms deals, investments and personal profit.”
Over the course of the documentary, that story is told with insights from former U.S. officials and diplomats, members of the Saudi government, Trump administration insiders, Saudi dissidents, human rights and foreign policy experts, and journalists who have covered financial ties between the Trump family and Saudi Arabia.
The film examines the role and criticism of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a key Trump advisor on Middle East issues tasked with brokering a peace deal in the region despite having no previous experience in diplomacy.
As "The Crown Prince & the President" recounts, early in Trump’s first term, the Saudis saw an opportunity in what one reporter describes as Trump and Kushner’s “transactional” approach to foreign policy.
The Trump administration saw opportunity as well: “We need a strong, good relationship with Saudi Arabia,” Jason Greenblatt, a Trump advisor who worked with Kushner, tells Smith of the team’s mindset. “They're going to be essential to any kind of peace process with the Palestinians. We need oil. We need money. We need them to buy our defense.”
According to Victoria Coates, Trump’s former deputy national security advisor for Middle Eastern affairs, the president “saw Saudi Arabia as really the linchpin to the modern Middle East.”
But the relationship would soon be tested through the murder of Khashoggi, in which MBS denied involvement, and a harsh internal crackdown on political dissent under the crown prince who had portrayed himself as a reformer.
“Authoritarians are astute observers, and they will perceive the lack of conversation on human rights as a green light and a tacit approval to do whatever they wish,” says Khalid al Jabri, son of a former Saudi minister of state; both are now living in exile.
Trump and Kushner stood by MBS — and as the documentary explores, during Trump’s second term, they’ve come under further scrutiny for their ongoing business entanglements with the Kingdom while running the U.S. government. Trump and Kushner have brushed off conflict-of-interest concerns. And Coates tells Smith, “There may well be an appearance problem, but I mean, then it's been a problem for, I guess, 10 years now, and that didn't prevent the American people from resoundingly re-electing President Trump in 2024.”
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