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Back in July, I wrote the headline, “Joe Biden Shuffles off to Middle East Tuesday to Beg Saudis for More Oil Production.” I predicted that he would fail spectacularly, and indeed he did. The Saudis not only refused Biden’s demand that they pump more oil—they’ve since gone on to announce a decline in production. Nice work there, Joe.

Now a new report from the Wall Street Journal reveals that the Saudis not only thumb their noses at the president on the world stage, they privately mock him and make fun of his numerous gaffes behind his back:

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s 37-year-old day-to-day ruler, mocks President Biden in private, making fun of the 79-year-old’s gaffes and questioning his mental acuity, according to people inside the Saudi government.

He has told advisers he hasn’t been impressed with Mr. Biden since his days as vice president, and much preferred former President Donald Trump, the people said.

When asked for a response to the story, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre not surprisingly had nothing to offer:

Bin Salman, sometimes referred to as MBS, has reasons for his disdain of Biden. The president has called the kingdom a “pariah” whose government he claimed had “very little social redeeming value.” On the campaign trail in October 2020 he said:

Under a Biden-Harris administration, we will reassess our relationship with the Kingdom, end US support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and make sure America does not check its values at the door to sell arms or buy oil. [Emphasis mine.]

And yet, there he was in July, checking his values at the door and begging for more oil from the man he deemed responsible for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In recent weeks, Biden has stepped up his demands in threatening language for MBS to produce more crude before the midterms, with some saying that it looks awfully close to blackmail. The Saudis have not backed down:

It’s not like the two leaders didn’t try to patch things up in July, but the Journal reports they “just don’t like or trust each other.”

Mr. Biden and Prince Mohammed tried to build a personal rapport during the president’s trip to Jeddah in July, where they fist-bumped ahead of a three-hour meeting.

But the president angered the royal by immediately raising human-rights allegations, people close to the talks said, including the 2018 death of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist based in Washington who was killed and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

The reality is Biden was right to release the report about the atrocity that was the killing of Khashoggi, which our intelligence services have confirmed was ordered by MBS (the Saudis deny this). Where Biden is wrong—spectacularly wrong—is that he never should have been in the position of having to plead with murderous royals for mercy in the first place.

Instead, he should have long ago reversed course on his disastrous war on energy and started the pumps and fracking rolling again right here at home. His environmental crusade may look good on paper, but the results are that we simply outsource our energy needs to dictatorships—with little actual effect on the environment. Pumping for oil is pumping for oil, no matter where you do it.

The net effect is that Biden doesn’t only make a joke of himself stateside, but an embarrassment worthy of mockery on the world stage.

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