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Billionaire Saudi Prince Tells Donald Trump To Drop Out Of US Presidential Race, Trump Calls Him ‘Dopey’

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 20:53 PST, Dec 11, 2015

Referring to Donald Trump’s call to bar Muslims from entering the United States, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal has told The Donald to withdraw from the U.S. Presidential race, saying he is a “disgrace.”

Prince Alwaleed is the richest man in Saudi Arabia and is the nephew of the late King Abdullah. Like Donald Trump, he is a real estate investor who specializes in hotels and also owns shares in both Twitter and Citigroup. The Saudi prince is reportedly the 34th richest man in the world and has an estimated net worth of $24.8 billion.

After Donald Trump’s recent controversial call to bar Muslims from entering the United States, 60-year-old Prince Alwaleed was among many in the Middle East who reacted to the statement, causing some to threaten the billionaire real estate mogul’s business investments. In the Prince’s case, he headed over to Twitter to tell Trump he is a disgrace, not only to the GOP but to all America, demanding The Donald withdraw from the U.S. Presidential race as he will never win.

Trump responded in his normal style, calling the Prince “dopey,” saying Prince Alwaleed only wants to control U.S. politicians using daddy’s money and saying he won’t be able to do it when he (Trump) is elected.

According to Politico, Donald Trump and the Saudi Prince have an interesting history together, as when Trump was deep in debt back in the 1990s he was forced to sell his 281-foot yacht, “The Trump Princess,” to Prince Alwaleed, who then renamed it “Kingdom 5KR.” The yacht is now docked in France and is used for the Prince’s leisure and pleasure activities.

Trump’s 1991 book “Surviving at the Top” reportedly had a chapter about the yacht, which the presidential contender named “Ship of Jewels: The Trump Princess.”

Back in 1995, Newsday wrote that Prince Alwaleed also bought a controlling stake in the Plaza Hotel, one of Trump’s properties. The 1995 report read as follows.

“The deal is subject to approval by the consortium of banks, led by Citibank, that has controlled the Plaza since 1993, after Trump was unable to make loan payments.”

However, as reported in the Economic Times, this isn’t the first time Prince Alwaleed has responded to U.S. politics and policies as after the September 11 attacks back in 2001, the prince donated $10 million to New York City towards its relief efforts. Initially the then New York Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani accepted the gift from the Saudi prince.

However, later, when the prince appeared to blame U.S. policies in the Middle East for the attacks, the mayor returned the prince’s donation. Among other statements at the time, Alwaleed said he believed the U.S. government should “re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.”

“Our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek.”

According to Giuliani, there was no moral equivalent for the attack and the people who attacked New York City “lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered 5,000, 6,000 innocent people. Not only are those statements wrong, they’re part of the problem.”

Relating to Donald Trump, Prince Alwaleed’s office reportedly said his tweet was in response to Trump’s “anti-Islam statement”.

Trump’s comments followed the shooting rampage by a Muslim couple in San Bernardino, California which left 14 people dead. His comments drew much criticism both at home and abroad when he said Monday the U.S. should bar Muslims from entering the country.

[Photo by Steve Pope/Getty Images News]

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