Trevor Noah explores what is really going on in Saudi Arabia's royal purge

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Daily Show)

There was a lot of news over the weekend from Saudi Arabia, "which is basically America's kooky rich uncle who occasionally beheads people," Trevor Noah said on Tuesday's Daily Show. But "the biggest story by far is the heir to the throne, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been arresting most of the other princes, a sheik-ton of them," he added, and the Saudis have "more princes than a Minneapolis Halloween party." The Saudi government is calling this a crackdown on corruption, but Noah wasn't buying it. "They're Saudi princes," he said. "What do you mean, corruption? They already have all the money."

Noah isn't alone in his suspicion that this is a brazen purge by the crown prince to consolidate power, but President Trump isn't perturbed. "Of course Trump loves this," Noah said. "Locking up political rivals is Trump's wet dream." He said Trump may not have endorsed the arrests, but the timing of Jared Kushner's visit to Saudi Arabia, right before the crackdown, was suspicious, given that Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman are friendly and reportedly stayed up to 4 a.m. talking — or in Noah's imagination, singing a modified tune from Disney's Aladdin.

This being Saudi Arabia, the situation is more complicated, and the crown prince is also a reformer, Noah said. "Sidelining the old guard could let him diversify the economy and expand women's rights. So the kingdom might become more autocratic but it also might become more free," a paradox he explored with an aside on monogamy. He ended with an unsympathetic look about the conditions the 11 detained princes are being held in. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.