In a display of moral bankruptcy so profound it should shock the conscience of the nation, President Donald Trump on Tuesday openly prostituted American values on the altar of Saudi cash, offering a grotesque whitewashing of the state-sanctioned murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
With the blood-money stench of a promised trillion-dollar investment hanging in the Oval Office air, Trump offered a masterclass in unprincipled transactionalism.
When confronted with the brutal 2018 killing and dismemberment of a Washington Post columnist—an act U.S. intelligence directly attributes to the man sitting beside him—the President of the United States shrugged.
Trump’s fawning reception for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)—complete with military flyovers, honor guards, and the nauseating label of “very good friend”—was a deliberate and calculated middle finger to the very concept of human rights.
His verdict on the grisly assassination? A cavalier, “things happen.”
In response to a question about the murdered journalist, 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.”
Then Trump went on to cover up the Crown Prince’s crime, “But he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
This was not diplomacy. This was a mob boss vouching for his favorite enforcer.
It was a signal to every autocrat on the planet that with this administration, the price of a clean conscience is a hefty investment portfolio and a few lucrative deals for the Trump family business.
Let us be clear: Trump did not merely “defend” the Crown Prince.
He actively participated in the cover-up, dismissing a journalist’s question as an attempt to “embarrass our guest.”
Since when is seeking accountability for a journalist sawed apart with a bone saw an embarrassment?
The only embarrassment is a commander-in-chief so morally vacant that he sees a dismembered body as an inconvenient talking point next to a weapons contract.
The entire spectacle was a garish bazaar where principles were the day’s marked-down merchandise. One must wonder if Trump will order the death of journalists who challenge his tyrannical presidency.
While discussing the sale of America’s most advanced F-35 fighter jets, the conversation wasn’t about human rights, but about the risk of China stealing the technology.
The potential normalization of relations with Israel wasn’t framed as a path to peace, but as a trophy for Trump’s so-called “Abraham Accords,” a deal he desperately wants to seal for his own legacy, Palestinian statehood be damned.
And slithering beneath it all is the unshakeable stench of Trump’s personal financial interests. His pathetic, rambling denial of involvement with the Trump Organization’s Saudi deals—including a new luxury project in the Maldives—reeks of the same conflict-ridden corruption that has defined his tenure. He claims to have “nothing to do with the family business,” yet his family eagerly courts the very regime he is showering with presidential pomp.
This is not statecraft. This is a protection racket.
Despite President Joe Biden’s campaign vow to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah,” he fist-bumped the Crown Prince in 2022, seeking his help with oil prices after the Ukraine invasion.
This embrace of a suspected murderer drew immediate fury from his own party. Progressive Democrat Lisa McCormick captured the outrage with her column, “I’ve had it with Joe Biden,” becoming one of the first to call for him to drop out of the 2024 race.
The establishment’s failure to heed her warning about alienating the base contributed to the disastrous return of Donald Trump.
Now, Trump has offered the Saudi regime the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card: blanket impunity in exchange for cash and the illusion of geopolitical wins.
He has told the world that for the right price, the United States will not only overlook your atrocities but will actively celebrate your butchers.
It is a betrayal of Jamal Khashoggi, a betrayal of a free press, and a fundamental betrayal of the American ideals this office is sworn to uphold.
History will record this day not as a meeting of allies, but as the day a U.S. president looked into the face of a murderer, smelled the profit, and sold his soul.