The Man Who Would Be King of Saudi Arabia (with Karen Elliott House)

Thank you very much.

Your book is a portrait of Mohammed bin Salman, and I may be pronouncing his name c-- uh, incorrectly.

You'll, you'll tell me.

He is the thirty-nine-year-old prince, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

He is commonly known as MBS for his initials.

He is the son of King Salman, the crown prince, and indeed, the man who would be king.

Let's start with how his father came into power and, and how MBS is so much more than a prince in waiting, which is-- would be a-

Mm-hmm

... normal thing to assume.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, yes, crown princes in Saudi Arabia typically have just been bodies waiting to ascend when the king dies, um, but MBS is vastly, uh, more than that.

His father was crown prince under King Abdullah, who outlived three crown princes.

Um, and, uh, [clears throat] and thus, King Salman became king.

I mean, he, he-- most people never thought he would be because he was down the line, but the deaths of his brothers, uh, brought him forward.

Uh, so he became king in January of twenty fifteen when, um, King Abdullah died.

Um, and MBS, uh, who was his father's assistant at the defense ministry, his father was defense minister and crown prince to King Abdullah, immediately began changing things in his father's new government.

Now, that transition was, uh, complicated.

We'll talk a little bit about it in a second, but, uh, this family, uh, of, of kings and crown princes, you mentioned there were three.

There are often more than one.

Uh-

Mm-hmm

...

they often, the kings of Saudi Arabia ha-- often have many wives and children, uh, and sometimes that transition is violent.

Give us a little thumbnail of how long roughly that's been going on and that, that family's rule, uh, a- and which brings us up to the present.

The s- story...