Yesterday, Donald Trump told a gathered press pool that he had spoken with Saudi King Salman on the phone and the king assured him they had nothing to do with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was lured to the Saudi consulate in Turkey where he was reportedly murdered and dismembered with a bone saw so his body could be smuggled out.
Today, Saudi authorities are reportedly prepared to admit that Khashoggi died in the consulate and Turkish authorities say they recovered evidence of his murder.
A reporter for The Washington Post and a U.S. resident, Jamal Khashoggi’s murder should alarm every one of us. Did U.S. Intelligence have advance warning that his life was in danger? Two years into Trump’s first (and hopefully only) term, he still has not named ambassadors to Saudi Arabia or Turkey. Trump decided to send Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to get to the bottom of this murder.
Notice the not-so-casual racism at play: Trump won’t even recognize that Khashoggi is a U.S. resident, instead hinting that this is Saudi business, not ours.
Surely Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would take a more serious, sober approach, right? Well, here is Pompeo with Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, smiling and laughing it up for the cameras. Can anyone watch the video below and believe that Donald Trump’s administration is going to retaliate for the murder of a U.S. resident in any way, shape or form?
As my colleague Mark Sumner wrote, maybe King Salman thought he was doing Donald Trump a favor when they murdered Khashoggi. After all, a $110 billion arms sale to the Saudis is at stake, and the Saudis banned Khashoggi from television and news print after he was critical of Donald Trump’s rise.
Despite Donald Trump’s denials on behalf of the Saudi king and his family, only hours later a cleaning crew was seen entering the Saudi consulate, before Turkish police were allowed to enter.
It cannot go unnoticed that Donald Trump has greatly benefited financially from the Saudi king and his family, and continues to do so today. After two years of declining revenue at Trump’s New York hotel, the Saudi family’s spending turned it around. From The Washington Post:
The general manager of the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan had a rare bit of good news to report to investors this spring: After two years of decline, revenue from room rentals went up 13 percent in the first three months of 2018.
What caused the uptick at President Trump’s flagship hotel in New York? One major factor: “a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” wrote general manager Prince A. Sanders in a May 15 letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post.
The Saudi family themselves preferred more upscale accommodations. That bump in revenue was only from members of the huge travel party.
Neither Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman nor members of the royal family stayed at Trump’s hotel, Sanders said: He said the Trump hotel didn’t have suites big enough to accommodate them. But “due to our close industry relationships,” he wrote, “we were able to accommodate many of the accompanying travelers.”
In the early days of Trump’s 2016 campaign, he bragged of how much money the Saudis spent at Trump properties:
At a 2015 campaign stop, Trump bragged to the crowd about his business dealings with the Saudis. “Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them,” Trump said. “They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
On Trump’s first big overseas trip after taking office, he went straight over to see his uber wealthy pals and even curtsied when they gave him a gold trinket.
Extreme wealth is the only thing Donald Trump respects. Is this someone who will stand up for American citizens and American ideals against a sometimes-ally, sometimes-foe? This is a man who didn’t even have the guts to fire FBI director James Comey to his face, preferring to wait until he was on the opposite coast and then sending his former bodyguard to deliver a letter to the FBI’s headquarters in D.C. Can we really expect this weak president to stand up to the Saudi royal family?
Every minute Donald Trump is in office, the security of the United States and the world is at risk. A foreign government luring a U.S. resident and reporter to their consulate for the purpose of torture and murder requires a serious response and these men, with their smiles and personal financial connections, are not up to the task.