Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal was reacting to Donald Trump's call to bar Muslims from entering the United States. | AP Photo Billionaire Saudi prince to Donald Trump: Drop out

Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the desert kingdom's richest man and a nephew of the late King Abdullah, demanded on Friday that Donald Trump abandon his White House bid.

In a tweet, the 60-year-old prince reacted to Trump's call to bar Muslims from entering the United States, an idea that has drawn revulsion throughout the Middle East and threatened the billionaire real estate mogul's business investments.


“.@realDonaldTrump You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America.Withdraw from the U.S presidential race as you will never win,” Prince Alwaleed tweeted.

Trump hit back in a tweet late Friday, calling the prince "dopey." "@Alwaleed_Talal wants to control our U.S. politicians with daddy’s money. Can’t do it when I get elected," he tweeted.

Alwaleed, like Trump a real estate investor with a specialty in hotels, owns shares of Twitter and Citigroup. He sold most of his News Corp. stock early this year but continues to hold 6.6 percent of 21st Century Fox. The prince is the 34th richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $24.8 billion, according to Forbes.

Alwaleed has weighed in on U.S. politics and policies before. After the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, he donated $10 million to New York City for its relief efforts, and then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani initially accepted the gift.

But when the prince — a relative moderate in Saudi politics — appeared to blame U.S. policies in the Middle East for the attacks, Giuliani returned the money.

"I believe the government of the United States of America should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause," Alwaleed said in a statement at the time. "Our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek."

"There is no moral equivalent for this attack," Giuliani retorted, according to CBS. "The people who did it 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."

CORRECTION: Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the prince's relationship to Abdullah. He is his nephew.