Of all the shameful metaphors for the rot at the White House, this one wears the crown

This week, Donald Trump threw a lavish state party to welcome a brutal Saudi murderer. He defended the murderer’s crime, blamed the victim, and viciously attacked a reporter for asking the question on everyone’s mind: What about Jamal Khashoggi?

Of all the shameful metaphors for the corruption, ignorance, and rot presently infecting the White House, this one wears the Trump crown.

A brutal regime dismembers its critic

Khashoggi was a US resident and journalist for the Washington Postbefore it fell to corporate interests that now serve Trump.

Khashoggi was a frequent critic of the Saudi government. He frequently criticized the royal ruling family, not for their lavish lifestyles but for their suppression of dissent, their refusal to allow free speech among the Saudi people, and their widespreadhuman rights abuses.

On Oct. 2, 2018, Khashoggi was murdered in Istanbul. He had gone to see about a visa for his Turkish fiancée at the Saudi consulate’s office, where he was attacked, strangled, and dismembered.

A recording made by Turkish intelligence agents in the building captured the whole gruesome ordeal: Khashoggi could be heard struggling against Saudi guards of the royal Crown Prince as his killing was recorded, complete with screams, the sounds of strangulation, then quiet, before a bone saw was heard dismembering his body.

US intelligence knows MBS ordered it

In 2021, US intelligence reports concluded that Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS, personally ordered the operation.

The US Director of National Intelligence supplied facts supporting that conclusion, including:

• Bin Salman’s total control of decision-making in the Saudi Kingdom
• The direct involvement of Bin Salman’s key adviser in the brutal attack, along with members of his personal security team
• Bin Salman’s stated support for using violence to silence critics of the Saudi government abroad, including Khashoggi.

US intelligence added that, “Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom's security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince's authorization.”

This week, despite these publicly available facts, Trump treated Bin Salman to an unusually lavish state reception, complete with military officers in full dress carrying both Saudi and American colors. As the US taxpayer-funded Marine band played, Trump and Mr. Bone Saw were treated to a fly-over of advanced fighter jets, samples of the 48 F-35 jets Trump already sold to Saudi Arabia, despite national security concerns that China will be able to steal the aircraft’s advanced technology.

Trump courts a murderer to line his own pockets

Trump’s personal wealth has increased by more than $3 billion since his return to office, largely from ethics-adjacent crypto schemes, foreign real estate deals, meme coins that have no value, and overt pay to play transactions. His lavish courtship of Bin Salman fits neatly into the same corrupt pattern, promoting Trump’s illegal, private, for-profit interests.

The Trump Organization has multiple, large-scale projects pending in Saudi Arabia, including a new Trump Tower and a Trump Plaza development in Jeddah, along with two other projects in Riyadh. These deals are publicly known; it’s likely billions of dollars more are exchanging hands under the table.

Trump is also in private partnership with the Saudi-owned, “International Luxury Real Estate Developer,” Dar Global. There's a separate $2 billion deal where an Abu Dhabi-based, UAE-backed investment firm used a cryptocurrency from the Trump family's venture, World Liberty Financial, to invest in another crypto exchange, profiting Trump royally.

And no one has forgotten Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner's, $2 billion private “investment” fee from the Saudis, packaged when Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced a $55 billion acquisition. Kushner’s fee is widely regarded as payment for providing political cover and guaranteeing Trump’s regulatory protection. After the PIF’s own advisors initially rejected the deal, bin Salman personally overruled them and pushed it through.

Trump didn’t mention these deals this week when he rolled out the red carpet on taxpayers’ dime, but claimed instead with trademark ambiguity that the Saudis were going to “invest as much as $1 trillion in the US.”

Trump endorses the unthinkable

Journalists around the world, not to mention Khashoggi’s family, had to endure the nightmare of watching Trump fawn all over Bin Salman. In every photo from the mainstream media, Trump couldn’t keep his hands off him, as if Trump were absorbing Saudi wealth through his fingers.

Tuesday, when ABC journalist Mary Bruce asked Bin Salman about intelligence reports concluding that he ordered the Khashoggi murder, Trump jumped in, answering for him.

“He knew nothing about it! You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking something like that.”

Trump then suggested Khashoggi got what he had coming for criticizing the government, saying:

“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.”

After sending this chilling message to his critics, Trump then attacked Bruce for being “horrible, insubordinate” and asking “just a terrible question,” dressing her down in garbled syntax before cameras of the world with, “You’re all psyched up. Somebody psyched you over at ABC and they’re going to psych it. You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter.” He later demanded that ABC lose its broadcast license.

Mohammed bin Salman is condemned throughout the civilized world as a brutal pariah. Trump just spent a taxpayer fortune to rebrand him “one of the most respected people in the world,” to elevate and promote Trump’s own business ventures.

It is fitting that Trump committed this atrocity in a formerly dignified room now desecrated with tacky gold medallions. The Oval Office is now a bordello whose pimp is selling America to the highest bidder — and we, his trafficked victims, are letting him do it.

• Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.