People take part in a candlelight vigil to remember journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 25. Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and critic of the Saudi regime, went missing after entering the consulate on Oct. 2. More than two weeks later Riyadh announced that he had been killed.
"We must seek partners, not perfection." These were perhaps the most tantalizing words U.S. President Donald Trump could offer to the more than 50 leaders of the Islamic world who attended his speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May 2017. And perhaps no one was listening more intently to that message than an excitable young prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who was merely days away from kicking his older cousin out of the line of succession while preparing to take the reins of the kingdom. The shock surrounding the grisly killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi all comes back to that sublimely surreal summit in Riyadh. The royal carpet at the now legendary Ritz-Carlton was rolled out for America's new, gilded president, cementing a powerful personal bond between the young prince and the Trump family dynasty.
