President Joe Biden's campaign promise regarding Saudi Arabia has not aged well.
That's what critics say after the kingdom and its controversial leader have racked up a series of wins capped off by the merger of the PGA Tour with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
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"Is Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman trolling President Biden?" the Wall Street Journal's editorial board wrote last week. "Call it the revenge of the 'pariah,' to borrow Mr. Biden’s epithet for MBS."
"MBS" refers to Mohammed bin Salman, the country's 37-year-old de facto ruler. The crown prince is an internationally controversial figure who a 2021 CIA report said was personally linked to the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
While campaigning in 2019, Biden said he would make Saudi Arabia "pay the price, and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are." Biden said that same year that the country has "no redeeming social value," as evidenced by the Khashoggi murder.
But Biden had another reason to talk tough about Saudi Arabia, which was the crown prince's relatively close relationship with the Trump administration, in particular with former President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Thus, Biden's tough talk helped showcase a clear contrast with his 2020 campaign opponent.
While heated rhetoric occurs in every campaign, Biden had to face up to his words after taking office.
“A lot of things are said during campaigns,” said Steven Cook, a fellow in Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But the Saudis took it seriously. MBS was offended by it. So there’s not a lot of goodwill there to begin with. I think it soured the relationship from the very beginning.”
The situation has been tough for Biden since taking office, Cook added.
First, demand for gasoline jumped as travel demand finally rebounded from COVID-19-related policies in 2022. At the same time, the United States implemented major sanctions against gas exporter Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Those two development sent gas prices skyrocketing in the summer of 2022, which led to Biden's meeting with the crown prince last July, where he was seen fist-bumping the royal.
But the move didn't seem to improve relations. Saudi Arabia announced last October it would cut production and did so again in April.
As such, Cook wrote that the "pariah" pledge was bound to fail.
Biden vowed to impose consequences on Saudi following the October cuts, but those failed to emerge. Recent reports indicate that threats from the crown prince may have played a role.
Saudi Arabia has also agreed to a China-brokered deal to revive diplomatic ties with Iran and made friendly overtures toward Russia.
Most recently, the kingdom scored a win when the PGA Tour announced a merger with Saudi-backed LIV Golf. PGA commissioner Jay Monahan fought fiercely against LIV after it launched last year, saying Saudia Arabia wanted to "buy the game of golf." Now, his organization will be chaired by Yasir al Rumayyan, who heads the kingdom's $620 billion public investment fund and is a top ally of the crown prince.
Adding insult to injury, LIV Golf partnered with Trump before the merger, hosting three tournaments at golf courses he owned.
The White House took a lot of heat after the announcement, with reporters questioning what it means for future U.S.-Saudi relations.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to comment on the PGA-LIV merger, though she was pressed repeatedly on the issue.
"President Biden has been very direct in the past about expressing his concerns about human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, about the crown prince's role in the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi," a reporter asked. "Do you really mean to say that you have no comments on this massive investment by Saudi Arabia taking a huge foothold in one of the U.S.’s biggest sports?"
Jean-Pierre stood her ground.
"We've been very clear when it comes to mergers, when it comes to a private entity [that] we do not comment," she said. "I mean, that is not unnatural. That is not uncommon from us here at the White House.”
When Biden was asked about the deal, he made a golf swing motion and said, "I'm planning on being in the PGA."
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In the meantime, top Democrats are pushing back on the golf merger, questioning whether it violates antitrust laws or rules on foreign entities operating within the U.S.
"While few details about the agreement are known, PIF's role as an arm of the Saudi government and PGA Tour's sudden and drastic reversal of position concerning LIV Golf raise serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote in a letter to Monahan. "The PGA Tour has placed a price on human rights and betrayed the long history of sports and athletes that advocate for social change and progress. I will keep a close eye on the structure of this deal and its implications."