U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed a move by Saudi Arabia's future king that tightened his grip on power through the arrests of royals, ministers and investors in an anti-corruption purge.
The endorsement cemented a U.S.-Saudi relationship that has improved dramatically under Trump's presidency, partly because of both leaders' vision of confronting Riyadh's arch-rival Iran more aggressively in the region.
Trump tweeted on Monday that he had "great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia" following the mass arrests- the biggest such purge of the kingdom's affluent elite in its modern history.