In recent months, Donald Trump has traveled to Mar-a-Lago nearly every weekend, and this past weekend was no exception. On Friday night, however, the president added a stop before arriving at his glorified country club: He went to Miami to speak at a conference for Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund.

The remarks did not go especially well. While bragging about the war in Iran he started for reasons he’s struggled to explain, Trump boasted that he and his administration “saved the Middle East” — a claim that roughly coincided with news that an Iranian missile strike had injured American service members stationed at an air base in Saudi Arabia.

The New York Times reported, “Mr. Trump appeared to be unaware in the moment of the combined missile and drone attack, which was one of the most serious breaches of U.S. air defenses in the course of the monthlong war. While onstage, he continued to praise the dominance of the United States and its Gulf allies. The result was an unsettling, split-screen reminder that despite Mr. Trump’s contention, the war is far from resolved and could risk more American lives.”

But complicating matters further are the broader circumstances: The sitting American president was speaking at a conference for Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund, on the heels of his son-in-law Jared Kushner turning to Saudi officials for more money for his private investment firm.

This is the same son-in-law who also happens to be simultaneously leading the U.S. government’s negotiations in the Middle East, despite his obvious conflicts of interests and the fact that he holds no public office.

Meanwhile, Riyadh — when it’s not talking business with Trump’s son-in-law, or not focused on private dealings with Trump’s family business — is playing a direct role in helping steer Trump’s foreign policy in the region. The Times also reported last week:

Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing President Trump to continue the war against Iran, arguing that the U.S.-Israeli military campaign presents a ‘historic opportunity’ to remake the Middle East, according to people briefed by American officials on the conversations.

In a series of conversations over the last week, Prince Mohammed has conveyed to Mr. Trump that he must press toward the destruction of Iran’s hard-line government, the people familiar with the conversations said.

So, on one hand, we see the affairs of state, with Saudi Arabia pressing the American president to continue to wage war against Saudi’s principal foe. On the other hand, we also see the American president’s family working on private deals with Saudi Arabia as Trump simultaneously extends his public support to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund.

All of these developments come on the heels of Trump ignoring Pentagon concerns about selling F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, which roughly coincided with Trump announcing that the White House had designated Saudi Arabia a “major non-NATO ally” as part of a new security agreement.

The same week, Trump welcomed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the Oval Office, inexplicably praised his human rights record, suggested that murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi had it coming and chastised an American reporter for asking the Saudi leader “an insubordinate question,” as if members of the free press were somehow the crown prince’s employees.

As the event continued, the American president horsed around with the crown prince like a pair of kids having a good time. Grabbing his guest’s hand, Trump said, “I don’t care where that hand’s been.”

It was embarrassing at the time, but it’s quite a bit worse now that Trump’s interest in Riyadh’s interests has intensified.

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