President Trump in his autocratic rule uses lies, division, fear and other autocratic means to govern. He treats the news media as fake news and the enemy of the people. One of his very first foreign visits in 2017 as President was with Saudi Arabia and he let it be known to their monarch that he had no interest in their human rights abuses. He also reminded Saudi Arabia of his company's business relationship with that country.
The monarchy of Saudi Arabia has a long history of human rights abuses and really not a good friend of America. The two countries do trade with each other and have an oil monopoly, but like Trump, they lie and use fear as policy. And it all came to a head on October 2 when Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. That was 23 days ago and Saudi Arabi still can not produce Jamal's body (Turkey said it was dismembered) and Saudi Arabia's excuse given to the public for the killing is a fairy tale by all accounts. Donald Trump's reaction to the murder of Jamal has been muted and shows more concern for the monarch's feeling than the murderous act.
The President says he has to take into consideration the arms sale to Saudi Arabia and that they are a block against Iran. Saudi Arabia has threatened big time retaliation against the United States if sanctions are imposed. Jamal was killed because as a journalist, he wrote commentary about the Saudi's human rights abuses and was out spoken on the matter. Like Trump, Saudi Arabia viewed Jamal's writings as fake news and an enemy of the people.
Trump's talk about Saudi Arabia being a block against Iran's aggressive actions is simply b.s. If that were the case, why walk away from the Iran nuclear agreement? The fact remains that it was Iraq under Saddam that was a block on Iran but George W. Bush removed that block with his invasion and occupation of Iraq over WMD that did not exist. And 15 years later the United States still has troops there who are trying to stabilize Iraq.
Trump's passive attitude concerning Russia and now Saudi Arabia's actions speaks loud and clear. Is it any wonder why just yesterday Russia's Putin said the U.S. no longer has the military advantage and that Russia would target countries where the U.S. has missile bases. Past American Presidents would never leave 23 days go by without a sound and serious reaction to such a murder that took place in the Saudi consulate. That is why past Presidents were the leader of the free world.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
