The Saudis made Trump's visit an extravaganza. They are unlikely to be for Biden.

When President Donald J. Trump chose Saudi Arabia in 2017 for the first foreign trip of his presidency, the Saudis were so thrilled they turned his visit around into a pro-American extravaganza.

They threw giant American and Saudi flags on the facade of a luxury hotel. They put Mr. Trump in a palace. American flags hung from lampposts along the freeway strips.

Mr. Biden's visit to the kingdom on Friday night, his first after nearly two years in office, is bound to be less jubilant, not least because he pledged during his election campaign to treat Saudi Arabia as a 'pariah' for his human rights abuses, his bruising the feelings of a longtime American partner.

As president, Mr. Biden continued to criticize the kingdom's human rights record, fueling tensions with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler. The murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in 2018 was a notable point of contention.

The Saudis have also come to doubt the commitment of the administration to their security, particularly from the attacks launched by Iran and its proxies in Yemen. This sentiment contributed to their decision not to immediately join Washington's efforts to isolate Russia after its invasion of Ukraine or to increase oil production to help bring down oil prices.

None of these issues clouded Mr. Trump's visit. The Saudis fully embraced him from the start, hoping to have warmer ties with him than with President Barack Obama. They expanded his visit to a summit of Islamic nations attended by heads of state and other senior officials from dozens of countries.

A transformation of the capital , Riyadh, featured a Saudi penchant for American culture. The Saudi Harley-Davidson club organized a rally of alcohol-free bikers. Country singer Toby Keith performed to a packed house of Saudi Arabian fans, all of them men.

Perhaps the best-known image from this trip is of a visit to a center for the fight against extremism, where Mr. Trump, King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt put their hands on a luminous orb. Photos from this moment spawned many memes.

The visit ended with Mr. Trump and other senior officials joining King Salman and the rest of his Saudi hosts in a traditional sword dance.

Attention to Mr. Trump laid the foundation for the warm ties the Saudis sought, an investment that has paid off for the kingdom throughout the Mr. Trump's presidency.

When Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab neighbors imposed a blockade on Qatar, Mr. Trump initially welcomed the move, although he later worked to end the breakup. He lifted restrictions on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, despite the long toll of civilians killed in Saudi bombings in Yemen. And Mr Trump became Prince Mohammed's staunchest defender in Washington after Mr Khashoggi's murder, arguing that arms sales to the kingdom were giving Americans jobs that should not be jeopardized because of human rights. man.

Prince Mohammed has also become close to Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, communicating with him directly via WhatsApp and occasionally meeting him off-site. scope of State Department note takers, leaving other branches of government in the dark about what they discussed.

This relationship also appears to have paid off, this time for Mr. Kushner. Six months after leaving the White House, he secured a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia for his new private equity fund.