President Biden’s Saudi Arabia Flip Flop

The White House confirmed Tuesday that President Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia next month, though the left was already criticizing the trip before it was formally announced. While his trip makes strategic and economic sense, it would be less embarrassing now if Mr. Biden had been more realistic about the world from day one.

Mr. Biden came into office bowing to the left’s disdain for Riyadh without appreciating the strategic need for Arab allies in the Gulf. As a candidate hevowedto make Saudi Arabia “pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.” He added that there was “very little social redeeming value in the present government.”

As President he rolled back support for the country’s war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen and tried to isolate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Mr. Biden also courted Iran, as Barack Obama had done to no good effect, which further discomfited the Saudis.