During a lavish banquet in honor of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Elon Musk seemingly took the opportunity to stir conversation with a provocative question. According to a lip-reading expert, Musk asked Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla if he believed the Saudi leader was a terrorist. This eyebrow-raising exchange, reported by The Daily Mail, unfolded as Musk sipped his drink and mischievously inquired about Bourla’s opinion on the matter.

Lip reader Nicola Hickling, who analyzed the footage, noted Bourla’s apparent surprise at Musk’s bold question. As of now, representatives for both Musk and Bourla have not commented on the interaction. The event marked Prince Salman’s first visit to the U.S. executive mansion in seven years, a significant occasion following the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which had previously strained diplomatic ties.

The banquet, hosted by former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, was a display of grandeur, with Melania subtly nodding to Saudi culture in a $3,350 green Elie Saab gown. The guest list read like a who’s who of influential figures, with appearances by Cristiano Ronaldo, Donald Trump Jr., and several political heavyweights such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Media personalities Bret Baier and Maria Bartiromo, along with top business leaders like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Apple’s Tim Cook, Charles Schwab, General Motors’ Mary Barra, and Palantir’s Alex Karp, also graced the occasion with their presence.

America’s relationship with Saudi was sent into a tailspin after the assassination of Khashoggi, a fierce critic of the tyrannical kingdom, which executes some 350 people per year, including political dissidents and homosexuals. Trump was grilled on Tuesday about Prince Salman’s connections to the journalist’s killing after giving him a lavish welcome, including an Air Force flyover – a display usually reserved for America’s closest allies. ‘You’re mentioning someone [Khashoggi] that was extremely controversial,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

‘A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen. But he [Prince Salman] knew nothing about it.’ Khashoggi, who lived in Virginia, and worked as a columnist for the Washington Post, was invited to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was ambushed by 15 agents, suffocated and hacked to pieces. His remains have never been found. The crown prince has denied any involvement but US intelligence is said to believe he likely directed the agents to carry it out.

ABC News’s Mary Bruce cited US intelligence when saying to Prince Salman ‘you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist’ and also noted that ‘9/11 families are furious that you’re here in the Oval Office.’ ‘Why should Americans trust you?’ she asked, with Trump asking, ‘Who are you with?’ throughout her inquiry. He then labeled Bruce ‘fake news’ before defending the crown prince.

Trump blew up at the journalist a second time, even threatening to pull ABC’s license, when she asked a follow-up on the Epstein files. ‘It’s not the question that I mind, it’s your attitude,’ Trump snapped. ‘I think you’re a terrible reporter,’ he added, calling her ‘insubordinate.’ Prince Salman eventually answered the Khashoggi question by saying that it was ‘really painful to hear anyone losing his life for no real purpose or not in a legal way.’

‘And it’s been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We did all the right steps of investigation, etc., in Saudi Arabia. And we’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that,’ the crown prince added. Despite the Khashoggi scandal, Trump has stayed close to the Saudi royal family.

He welcomed the crown prince to the White House for the first time since the journalist’s killing with a flyover of F-15s and F-35s, a parade of horses, and a pat on the back – an apparent breach of royal protocol. When Biden traveled to Saudi in 2022, he didn’t want to appear overly friendly due to the Khashoggi killing, so he greeted the crown prince not with a handshake but a fist bump. That move was met with controversy because it looked even friendlier. In addition to Trump’s deepening political ties with Saudi, the Trump family has substantial private business interests in the Gulf state, including a colossal residential skyscraper planned for Jeddah.