John Hudson of the Washington Post reports that last year, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was ready to declare a de facto economic war against the United States — and that shortly thereafter, the Biden team lost interest in imposing those long-promised consequences. …

This is yet another chapter in the long story of “Joe Biden is not the tough, intimidating guy that he wants to believe he is.” … The world’s more unsavory regimes aren’t fooled. They know Biden’s a chump who will back down when the stakes get high enough.

[Some of those confrontations are unavoidable, such as with China and Russia. Biden picked the fight himself with the Saudis, however, when it was clearly not in the national interest or even in *his* interest to do so while curtailing American oil and nat-gas production. The Saudis called his bluff and have been punishing him (and us) ever since. — Ed]