Few international relationships are as complex as that between the U.S. government and the Saudi kingdom. And with a regional war raging and President Donald Trump’s conditional offer of a Saudi nuclear program hanging in the balance, the decades-long alliance is seeing renewed challenges and turbulence.

In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, Editor-in-Chief Raney Aronson-Rath sits down with veteran correspondent Martin Smith to discuss his recent documentary, The Crown Prince & the President. Smith, who has covered the Saudi-U.S. relationship for more than two decades, offers an up-close look at the relationship between President Trump and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The conversation examines the central role of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in shaping this bond, the “business-first” approach that became a hallmark of the administration’s Middle East strategy, and the impact of the Trump-MBS relationship in an unstable region.

The Crown Prince & the President is available to stream now on FRONTLINE’s website, FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel, the PBS App, and PBS Documentaries on Prime.

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