Donald Trump’s debasement of the presidency was on full display Nov. 18 in the hero’s welcome offered the murderous leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Although not labeled as such, the heir apparent to the Saudi throne’s visit to Washington had all the trappings of an official state visit. In fact, it was one of the most lavish receptions of a foreign leader in recent memory.
The crown prince’s arrival was grand in every way — a red carpet rolled out on the South Lawn, with an Army honor guard of black horses and herald trumpeters, plus a flyover of six F-15 and F-35 fighter jets in “V” formation.
Stan Hastey
Once inside the White House and sitting in front of the gold-encrusted fireplace where Trump receives foreign heads of state and others, the president declared: “We have an extremely respected man in the Oval Office today, a friend of mine for a long time — a very good friend of mine — and I’m very proud of the job he’s done. What he’s done is incredible in terms of human rights and everything else. … We’ve been really good friends for a long period of time. We’ve always been on the same side of every issue.”
More tellingly, the president defended the Saudi leader when a reporter asked about the extraordinary welcome accorded one whom Trump’s own CIA determined had signed off on, if not outright ordered, the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi seven years ago. Khashoggi, a persistent critic of the Saudi regime, was tortured and then dismembered at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2, 2018. His remains reportedly were taken from the consulate in trunks to an undisclosed location.
As he nearly always does in such settings, Trump then invited questions from members of the White House press corps standing in the wings, promising that both he and Mohammed would answer them all. But things went sideways when asked about the nature of the prince’s reception in light of the intelligence report that the crown prince had been deemed responsible for the killing.
“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, but (Mohammed) 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,” Trump said.
“Seldom, if ever, has such a stench emanated from the White House.”
The president then insulted the reporter who asked the question, ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, calling her inquiry a “horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question.” He then added the network’s Federal Communications Commission license “should be taken away from ABC, because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong.”
Trump later said his bond with the Saudi leader is so close they call each other at any time, day or night. “We talk at night,” Trump said. “We can talk; I can call him almost any time. He goes, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ It’s like the craziest times.”
For his part, Mohammed denied responsibility, saying it was “painful to hear” that anyone would lose his life for “no real purpose.” He added: “We’ve did all the right steps of investigation, etc., in Saudi Arabia, and we’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. And it’s painful, and it’s a huge mistake. And we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
Following the Oval Office spectacle, Khashoggi’s widow expressed frustration with what Trump had said about her late husband.
“I was disappointed with the description of my husband as a controversial and an unliked person,” she said in an interview. “It looked like President Trump didn’t know anything about my husband. He was misinformed about his personality.”
What Trump had said, she added, “is as if saying, ‘Oh, this crime is OK.’ No, it’s not OK.” She then said she continues asking for Khashoggi’s remains from the Saudi government in order to give him a proper burial.
Seldom, if ever, has such a stench emanated from the White House.
Stan Hastey was a White House correspondent for the Baptist Press news service during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
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