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... The visage of Saudi Arabia's de facto leader is plastered on high-rises and billboards. It greets you in the lobby when you check in at your hotel. When you open the blinds, daylight will be accompanied by his impassive stare on the side of a neighboring building, a scruffy beard under a keffiyeh, peeking between construction cranes that punctuate the desert horizon.

It's an unsubtle reminder of who is taking credit for Riyadh's transformation. Investors and policymakers who've been coming here for decades told me that before MBS, the city was quiet, austere and medieval. Now, it's a sprawling labyrinth of five-star hotels, luxury stores and megasized real estate developments, a metropolis that soon might rival Abu Dhabi and Dubai as a glitzy destination for financiers and tourists. All this development was conceived and directed by a leader who wants to exact rapid and permanent changes to his country's economy and culture.

It's no wonder the Trump family loves it here. ...