Snapshot: Trump Excuses Murder and Blames the Victim
Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, culpable for the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi, enjoyed a warm welcome to Trump's White House
On October 2, 2018, Washington Post columnist and Saudi native Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He was strangled and chopped into pieces with a bone saw.
On February 11, 2021, U.S. intelligence confirmed what many had suspected. “We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman [MBS] approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence asserted.
The report noted that it was “highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization.” It added, “The Crown Prince viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the Kingdom and broadly supported using violent measures if necessary to silence him.”
Yesterday in the Oval Office, appropriately decorated like a bordello, Donald Trump excused Khashoggi’s murder, denying the role of MBS and blaming the victim.
“He knew nothing about it,” Trump interjected in response to a reporter’s question to the prince about the earlier finding of American intelligence. “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking something like that.”
And worse, Trump said, “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.”
Things happen.
That was Trump’s disgraceful summation of a brutal murder. It was the kind of response one would expect from a sociopath, a depraved and unprincipled man who judges people by their wealth and their ability to further enrich himself and his family. We all recall Trump son-in-law Jarad Kushner collecting $2 billion from the Saudis for a fledging equity firm soon after Trump’s first term.
Trump also took that moment to attack Mary Bruce, an ABC News White House correspondent, calling her “a terrible person and a terrible reporter” and her sharply worded query “horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question.” He also said ABC should lose its broadcasting license for daring to ask such a question. For his part, MBS called the murder “painful” and “a huge mistake,” without taking any responsibility for the deed.
We should not be surprised by Trump’s hostile dismissal of any criticism of the Saudi prince or Trump’s preference for rulers like MBS who are not unwilling to silence critics by murdering them. (To a lesser degree, he excused him in 2018, too.)
Trump proved that preference yesterday by giving the prince—who he claimed without detail would invest as much as $1 trillion in the U.S.—an unusually warm welcome: This included military officers in full dress carrying Saudi and American flags, while a Marine band played and advanced fighter jets flew over the White House. MBS had already gotten Trump’s approval to buy 48 F-35 fighter jets, despite national security concerns that China could steal the aircraft’s advanced technology.
But it was the Oval Office display that was particularly sickening and infuriating, as Trump seemed unable to keep his hands off the prince, condemned a free press seeking the truth, angrily dismissed MBS’ culpability in the murder and blamed Khashoggi for being “extremely controversial” and not more likable. Trump shamelessly rebranded bin Salman, not long ago condemned in civilized countries as a pariah, “one of the most respected people in the world.”
If I thought for a split second that Trump’s involvement with sex trafficker and child rapist Jeffrey Epstein—and his continuing indifferent denials—represented about as bad as it could get, his easy dismissal of murder yesterday is a reminder that there is still worse to come.
As Trump’s federal agents criminally assault people on our streets while wearing masks to hide their identity, the unhinged and utterly unprincipled Trump has no mask—no need to pretend that he’s bound by law or basic human decency. Thanks to near-total immunity granted by Chief Justice John Roberts and his Supreme Court’s supermajority as well as sycophants in high places cheering on his excesses, we can expect Trump will keep acting with abandon, no matter how outrageous.
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Here's some good news: Trump is losing his mind, literally. His father died of dementia; his mother of Alzheimer's. You can see and hear the toll it's taking, especially as the Epstein Files debacle closes in on him. He speaks jibberish, no longer the "weave." Just straight up crazy talk. Which will make it harder to convict him of treason for selling 48 F-35's to the Saudi's, who will more than likely offload the tech to China. [Why do they need all those planes?] All so that Trump and Sons can make out like piggy bandits in the Middle East. MBS is a scourge and the honors bestowed on him Tuesday, plus the awful gaud of the Oval Office, made me sick to my stomach. How far America has fallen under this regime. When he is finally gone, we must all join hands in a massive demonstration nation-wide and ask the world for forgiveness for what so low a man has done.
What we witnessed was business as usual for him. Total and complete adoration of autocracy. Add Saudi Arabia to the list of autocratic countries that he admires.