Since President Trump met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the heels of his return from a meeting with Saudi officials, Trump has begun privately distancing himself from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, The New York Times reported.
Trump has told allies that he “barely knows” bin Salman, in the Times’ words, while simultaneously attempting to whitewash his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner’s relationship with the crown prince, despite reports that the two are so close that they text through private channels like WhatsApp.
During an interview with the Times on Thursday, Trump reportedly said he trusted reports from his intelligence community that suggest the death of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi may have been orchestrated by high-level Saudi officials. If those beliefs are proven true, Trump acknowledged it would be damaging for relations with the kingdom.
Read the full report here.
Profiles in courage.
This sounds vaguely familiar, no?
By next week: “I think the Crown Prince may have gotten me coffee once.”
Crown Prince Kushner?
“I don’t remember… did he date the First Lady a while back?”
Many people are saying this.
Let’s be clear about what this backtracking is about: the election. If this were happening in a Democratic administration, the punditocracy would be ejaculating all over themselves about the political impact. It would feed the built in ‘Dems are doomed; Dems in Disarray’ narrative. No one in the cable news media is talking about it, but the Khashoggi murder has been on the news every day, non-stop. It has made its way into debates and local news as well. It is not a good look for Trump because he looks like he is bought and paid for by Saudi money. This is Helsinki 2.0, but it’s being drawn out over several days as more revelations are made known and the Administration continues to backtrack. A big factor in the election is checking Trump. There is no more tangible example of why Trump needs to be checked in matters of foreign policy than the Khashoggi murder.