Ally Saudi Arabia? The country brought us 9/11. Customer Saudi Arabia is more is more accurate.
4
Remember, that was his very first foreign country stop after faking the taking the oath of office.
4
It sounds like MBS’ calculation that the U.S. would look the other way was pretty spot on.
4
Judging by his feelings for the press he probably approves of their actions.
5
No one should be surprised by this. For Donald, it has always been about the money. I am dismayed that Chuck Todd didn't ask a follow-up question pertaining to how many innocent people would need to be killed before Trump would halt arms sales. Is it three, 20, 30 or 500? With that answer, we could then compare the revenue of arms sales to the people murdered and determine how much a human life is worth to him.
7
Multiple economic sanctions are equivalent to war against tens of millions of people who have relatives in the U.S., aspire to the best parts of our culture, and truly “have nothing against us”. The racism of our power elite is flagrant.
9
Trump says that acknowledging, and condemning, and holding the Saudi’s responsible for admitting they chopped up a Washington Post reporter would be bad business for ‘US’. Does he mean we the people of the United States of America, or himself, his cronies, his political contributors, and his daughter and son-in-law? Trump talks about ‘US’ like he means you, and me. I think that most people would never choose money making deals, over moral bankruptcy.
5
@Wanda. I think I meant “over morality”. Wanda
How quaint. Remember before the 2016 election, all the news media were wringing their hands whether to call DJT statements lies?
Now the media cannot even be bothered confronting the liar in chief about his bold faces lies.
4
Of course, He’s a salesman. And a successful one at that. Sold us. Gave us what we thought we wanted. Hopefully like some choices , it wasn’t what we wanted. The next election will tell.
5
Ah, yes. Just another "inconvenient truth" - another cross for poor little Donny Boy to carry. Would that he were half a concerned about the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) who will die slowly and painfully from his "tough guy" proxy war in Yemen. Or the thousands who have, and will, die trying to get to safe harbor from the hellish conditions in gang-ridden Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Or the millions in this country who are stunted by growing up in extreme poverty. Well, it's nice Tramp values Iranian lives so highly. Others should be so lucky!
9
Saudi Arabia enables the US and Trump knows it. So did Bush, he was groveling. Obama supplied the Saudi's with billions in military weapons and materials as did Bush.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Saudi's don't have a direct line to the Oval Office. The one right next to Israel's.
6
Heaven forbid anything should come in the way between money and Donald Trump, et. al. Even the cost of human lives, which he so pointedly tried to fumble his way through an explanation as to why he didn't respond (militarily or otherwise) because "150 people would die." He also mentioned "They were Iranian citizens", as if this made some difference. He was breaking his arm to pat himself on the back (so often the case), when he made this statement. The polar opposite was the situation with Jamal Khashoggi, who I was writing about in the beginning here. Trump says whatever suits him at any given moment, with a near complete disregard for the truth. Worse, he says one thing, to rile people up; then he retracts it. All for the sake of attention. We cannot put up with this imbecile anymore. He has to go in 2020, if not sooner, somehow, through judiciary means.
10
"In the interview, Mr. Trump continued to criticize Jerome H. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, for raising interest rates too quickly. "
Wasn't Trump accusing Obama for keeping the rates artificially low? Didn't he claim that he will let the rates rise and economy follow its natural course?
5
"a sacrificial animal". I will never forget, or forgive these words. Hopefully, no one else will.
11
If the prospect of spending "$400 to $450 billion over a period of time" is the only reason for Trump's obeisance toward Saudi Arabia, I can suggest a better way of raking in much more than that: lift sanctions on Iran and start trading with it. Of course, it should be predicated on that country's strict compliance with the nuclear deal, which the Obama administration painstakingly put together in partnership with our European allies. By the way, other than Trump and his cronies, none has accused Iran of having violated the terms of the deal.
Trump had vowed to cancel the deal even as a presidential candidate, even before he read it. Having arrogantly and unilaterally walked away from it, his offer to negotiate a new one would not be taken seriously by the Iranians. I suggest that he reenter the existing deal and reauthorize the U.N. to monitor its compliance by Iran. Start trading with Iran and continue to do so as long as U.N. monitors certify Iran's compliance with the deal.
Iran may be as murderous and primitive as Saudi Arabia. But the U.S. policy toward it should not be determined by Saudi Arabia’s hatred for that country and by the present U.S. president's and his son-in-law’s business interests in that country. The criteria should be our permanent national and international interests. That is the cardinal rule followed in international relations. Will the cronies of Trump muster enough courage to tell him that no sovereign nation would be cowed by threats?
13
We now know again the value Donald Trump puts on the life pf a US resident/journalist.
And on the law.
And on the truth - (he didn’t state incorrectly or whatever - he LIED about how other presidents treated immigrant children)
How much more of this will our representatives take?
We’ve had way too much.
Start the impeachment hearings already!
14
Just think of how history books will write of this era. There is fodder for decades of PhD’s, scholarship of all sorts.
History be unkind, reflecting the ignorance and selfishness of this administration and it’s cronies.
One fears that if the present course isn’t changed, there may be limited opportunity to even write those books.
10
Name one instance in which the president chose ethics over big business' making money. Saudi Arabia is "a good trade partner". That made Mr. Khashoggi dispensable.
22
No surprise here. Donald Trump has been a fan of Prince Mohammad bin Salman ever since he was welcomed in Saudi Arabia with a sword-dance and all the glitz he could ever hope for.
That's also why he sees nothing wrong with selling the Saudis billions of dollars worth of military bombs and planes so that they can continue to decimate the Yemeni population.
It's all about the bottom line with this president no matter how many human lives it costs.
And in all likelihood, he would too would like to have the journalists of the "liberal media" disappear.
After all, that's what they do in Russia.
18
@N. Smith
Agree. He's a hustler looking for ways the US Presidency can benefit him business-wise, both during and after his time in office. Trump Dubai, anyone?
5
Not to mention support for the Trump Organization and its projects!
Emoluments Clause violations don’t seem to count these days in Washington.
6
First, stop calling it "a killing". That sanitizes what was a cold blooded murder by Saudi Arabia, a barbaric nation, and authorized by their sadistic ruling family. A nation that beheads or stones people to death is a backwards country that should be sanctioned. The origin of all but 2 of the 911 hijackers? Saudi Arabia.
The contract killers that murdered Jamal Khashoggi called him a sacrificial animal. Indeed, and the United States, according to Trump, accepts his blood on our heads.
21
The Saudis spend lots and lots of money at Trump's DC hotel every year.
Did you honestly think he would jeopardize the blood money lining his pockets over a trifling like the kidnapping, torture, murder and dismemberment of an American-based journalist?
18
This is like a postscript for your opinion piece in today's paper, "Whatever Happened to Moral Capitalism." Of course, it could be argued that profit has often trumped (unintentional pun) morality when it comes to American capitalism. Most famous among the companies that profited from WWII sales to Nazi Germany were Standard Oil, Chase Bank, & IBM.
12
I continue to wonder why the news media gives Mr. Trump so much attention- yes, unfortunately he is the president and the media always flock to get the scoop about and by the president- but this president lives off of the attention he gets. There are so many other stories that need to be covered! What this president says can change on a dime and he has no credibility. Much of the so-called revealing news in the Chuck Todd interview has already been covered by other news organizations. Trump's reaction to the killing an dismembering of the Washington Post columnist is the most revealing about the president. His priority is how much money Saudi Arabia spends in the United States without regard to the deadly actions of the Saudi leader-it is simply mind boggling that a president of the US would be so dismissive of such violence. His lack of policy on both Korea and Iran is just CRAZY. I fear for our future with someone in charge of the military and our foreign policy that is so lacking.
21
As usual, when Trump balances ethics against money, ethics immediately get rejected.
16
@Siara Delyn Trump and his enablers do not know what "ETHICS" or "morals" or "conscience" or "appropriate" is or means. Never ever among his "most beautiful" words. All that is “Trump” is just soooo disgusting! Every day, every single day!
3
The Saudis are not our friends and they never were. They are brutal uncivilized killers. We do not need anything from them, certainly not their filthy $ which comes from their only commodity, antiquated toxic oil. End our relationship, trade and military contracts now, bar them from entry into the USA, end their visas, etc....perhaps the barbaric Saudis "royals" will eventually learn some real skills and become self sustaining.
26
So, if Mr. Khashoggi was instead an ally of Mr. Trump and the assassins who killed him were not -- would Mr. Trump still "[shrug] off the brutal dismembering ..."? My guess is no - because Mr. Trump is a hypocrite. Where is the "All life is sacred"?
12
If Iranians killed koshoggi, we would be at war... any reason to widen scale of conflict. Yes bet then dumpster (trump) would be a free press advocate!
4
What a great leader, setting high ethical and moral standards (sarcasm, for those unfamiliar with the concept).
16
I would suggest that this buffoon is just stating what our policy in regard to this murder would be under any president. The difference is that he says it out loud. Any other administration would probably approach the Saudi regime behind closed doors, tell them that we have to feign outrage for a time and then slowly mend fences for public consumption.
Yeah, it's a cynical viewpoint, but I'm old enough to doubt everything. As much as I despise Trump and want him gone, I believe that he is just espousing what has always been our policy - do what's best for the U.S. I dont' know about you, but when it comes to this sort of ugly diplomacy, I prefer a good actor as president. That way, I can sleep well when we are doing wrong.
6
There are certain instances in this interview that make it appear that Trump is suffering from dementia as well as any other mental illness he may have. Time for the 25th Amendment if not impeachment inquiries so that voters can see the evidence and know for ourselves who this man really is...IMHO the documents and testimony will reveal him to be a traitor. Certainly the remarks and the emphasis on blood money of the Saudis show his complete devotion to money and image. It was not the 150 people who would be killed in a strike on Iran that got Trump to change his mind. It was Fox News and what its anchor told Trump would be the PERCEPTION of his actions that changed the Liar in Chief's "mind".
15
So if the Saudis assassinate say Jared Kushner perhaps we’d get the same ‘ business as usual’ response?
13
@Adam Stoler Maybe not. But Ivanka?...
5
Trump is a dangerous and foolish man to have at the helm, with no conscience, no caring, and an utter willingness to allow the killing of a US resident. I cannot understand this nation’s tolerance for the monstrosities committed by Saudi Arabia. Trump isn’t the only president to turn a blind eye to this outlaw monarchy. I wonder how the Saudis would react if someone were to carve up Trump in the same manner Khashoggi was dispatched.
9
And now he's been accused of raping a woman in a famous high end department store and it's business as usual! It's fodder for late night comedians and eye rolling. I am totally disgusted at how far we've gone down into the gutter as a nation and how we let this poor excuse of a "leader" get away with it! What has happened to America's values? Did we ever have any to begin with?
10
He’s been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women...
More importantly, he bragged about it on authenticated video tape (the last year, it seems, we’ll be able to say that).
5
It is pointless to watch any of these so-called interviews with trump. Not because we know what fool he is but because the interviewer just sits there and lets trump lie. I find that far more frustrating than anything. When trump blames Obama Todd could have said 'We're talking about what is going on now not what was supposedly happening in the past'. There are so many easy ways to put trump on the spot and call him a liar without using the word but all the interviewers do is just let him ramble on.
30
Once again, the ugly truth of the Republican party proves that Capitalism rules....murder? if it'll block 'trade' (the more palatable word for Capitalism) .....no investigation. When on has friends like the Saudis one does not need enemies.
9
Money comes first for this man, everything else takes the back seat.
Unfortunately, he has been such a business failure, how many times has he declared bankruptcy and nobody really knows how much real money he has.
Add to this, he has no moral compass and wishes he could dispose of the journalists in this country in the same manner as the Saudis.
America really is going down the tubes.
17
Ignorance of this magnitude and scope put out on display by just one human being sort of takes one’s breath away.
16
It's all about the Money. The under-the-table " fees and commissions " and the purchase of Trump Properties at grossly inflated prices.
Seriously.
15
I’m reading about another interview with a crazy man who the Republicans are keeping in power as president of the United States. I am grateful to the remaining rational neurons in the crazy one’s brain that he called off those air strikes. But to watch the press continue to present and dissect—and seem to give him credit for a single blast of water into the conflagration he is creating—would make me crazy too. I wish we had a parliamentary system so we could vote them OUT.
19
Give that much kudo to this POTUS - he is not afraid to speak his mind even to the so called "fake media" that he always talks about.
I think this whole business of speaking out aloud his mind and more importantly, his opinions - has changed that office for ever.
No longer Americans are going to tolerate a POTUS who wonders what the meaning of "is" is.
Or for that matter - he has for ever vanquished a long established routine of political handlers trying out lines to be uttered by POTUS in focus groups.
Back to the interview which I did not watch.
I am totally with POTUS on that botched rendering by Saudi Arabia.
I also agree with a comment below that nowhere in our laws, America is required to carry out an investigation of a murder that happened overseas.
As to Mr. Sessions - POTUS is right on.
If Mr. Sessions had still be in office when Mueller was finished - this POTUS would still be fighting ghosts of Mueller.
For a man who had publicly claimed being an AG was the crown jewel of his career - well, Sessions did prove Peter's principle of "rising to your level of incompetence."
@Neil
I never realized that when trump was leading the chant USA at his Bund rallies, that it meant United Sociopaths of America.
14
In this interview Trump reveals yet again the two most salient aspects of his presidency--that he values money and business more than human life and that he will say absolute anything, no matter how demonstrable false, to justify himself, his cruelty, his failures.
It is breathtaking to think that a man of such utter depravity is not only the president of the United States of America--once the "shining light on the hill--but that some forty percent of Americans cheer him on.
91
@Steel Magnolia - I was going to comment on this article but I couldn’t say it better than you.
I don’t know this great country anymore. How can some of us see this man for the narcissistic, ill-equipped liar that he is, and forty percent think he’s the messiah? How did we get here?
48
@Louise How did we get here? FOX.
14
@Steel Magnolia If the ONLY news you listen to is Sean Hannity or FOX and friends then you have no reason not to believe trump is wonderful. People just do not seem to understand that a huge swath of our population listens ONLY to trump and FOX. Think about it.
12
I could not find any language in the US Constitution or Bill of Rights that states the US is responsible, or has authority, for investigating or prosecuting the deaths of foreign nationals in foreign countries.
Well, if you’re interested in legal details, the bill of rights is part of the constitution. You can’t read them without reading the constitution.
You won’t find anything there authorizing the president to impose tariffs either. As it turns out, the law is much more than the constitution.
Among other things, the president does, constitutionally, conduct foreign policy. The constitution doesn’t say what kind of foreign policy to have. Many feel our friends should not include murderous regimes.
22
@Mon Ray: I respectfully suggest that you’re missing the point of the article. Even if we do not have the “authority” to investigate the brutal assassination of Jamal Khashoggi on the orders of the Saudi crown, we certainly should not do business with his murderers. In particular, we should not sell them advanced weapons and weapon technologies.
31
Or send someone as utterly irrelevant and irresponsible as Jared Kushner to facilitate actions with this country.
9
"He said the Middle East is “a vicious, hostile place”"
Unlike America, which is a kind, friendly place where every 2 minutes a woman is raped, children die in school shooting or in custody of border patrol, blacks are killed with impunity at routine traffic stops and hospital patients get dumped on the sidewalk if their insurance won't cover them. Also, many of the vicious, hostile Arab dictatorships stay in power because of US backing.
59
This seems to be in accordance to the stall and dilute playbook, i.e., stall long enough until the news cycle is over. If oil is no longer a leverage, money still talks
9
What a disgrace but it follows U.S. policy of the superiority of money over all other considerations.
And I'm certain the Con Man and his grifter family, including Kushner, have big development plans in Saudi Arabia.
33
trump hands us a littany of impeachable offenses everyday. Congress, start the process now. Everyday with trump is another step toward the end of our democracy.
15
@MLE53 - unfortunately, impeachment doesn’t guarantee removal of him. Clinton was impeached. It’s also risky. It supports Trump’s narrative that there’s a witch hunt and makes him sympathetic to some voters. I’m with Pelosi. He deserves to be in jail. Defeating him in 2020 is the only way to protect our country. And it opens the door to judicial action.
9
@Louise
A lie about an affair vs. refusal to protect America from a foreign invasion. No contest here. trump is face of the reason our founding fathers gave the House impeachment power.
4
What's new?
It was predictable that trump would shrug off the UN report.
9
Why am I not surprised that our businessman president would want to sell America out, ignoring all morality and ethics for the sake of A buck, or even millions of bucks, to Make an economy Greater again by Selling two murderers and assassins? Just think of all the money we are probably making selling weapons to Isis!
16
When this nightmare is finally over we will discover that the Saudis have been propping up The Trump Organization and the Kushner Companies with cash paid by third parties.
92
@Alan, I think you are correct.
3
I am educated, well read and well traveled, interested in political interactions in the last 40 years. I, like many others in the world, no longer listen to any trump "interviews".
69
Mr. Trump's sadism has been part of who he is since childhood. All the marches, talk, analysis and psychoanalysis in the world will not change it. People who support him appear to vicariously "get off" on it, or deny it. Until/unless the voters who are different, replace him, we are stuck with a facsimile of a person for whom "the ends justifies the means." I am beyond sad and horrified at what our country has become.
126
Another Trump interview, and another occasion to wonder what combination of delusion and lies make up his declarations.
Are we to feel more secure if Mr. Trump isn't delusional, but is merely lying to satisfy his supporters? That is the sad, not to mention embarrassing, situation of present day America.
37
I’ll never forget Trump’s for now, right hand man, Pompeo, the Koch puppet, laughing with the Saudis after Mr. Khashoggi was murdered. The picture in my mind is haunting, indicative of what a sick country we’ve become.
110
@MIMA
Dark money finds its dark powers in dark places, protected from the sunshine and the originalist readers of the constitution sitting in the dark court chambers.
15
I will never forget the image of MBS and Vladimir Putin high-fiving at the G-20 last November. It was right after Trump had made clear the US would continue its relationship with the Saudis without so much as a blink at their brutal dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist. And a few short months after Helsinki, where Trump publicly exonerated Russia of any interference in our last presidential election, despite the judgment of seventeen U.S. intelligence agencies to the contrary.
9
@Steel Magnolia
I’m sure you’ll see that image many times in commercials for the Democratic candidate during the next election.
4
OK, did Trump and Kushner green light the "sacrifice" of Khashoggi? Did Trump give the thumb's up to MBS, before the slaughter?
8
@vole No he didn't. Not before the murder but definitely afterwards. Remember the smiling Pompeo?
3
I still have difficulty understanding how OUR serial bearer of false witness can be the standard bearer for the evangelical community.
72
@Peter Close
The quicker way to the world after this one.
5
@Peter Close Pretty sure it’s all about abortion and picking Supreme Court justices for them.
15
@Peter Close
The evangelical movement is comprised largely of the sheep that need to cling to something cult like to give them a sense of belonging, safety, community and meaning and the rest are those in power that know how best to manipulate them. Trump obviously is good at the manipulation.
6
So basically, money trumps morality?
31
@Why Me
Isn’t it mr. trump trumps reality and morality?
7
Of course Trump has no desire to challenge Saudi Arabia for its brutal murder & dismemberment of an opposition journalist. Prince MBS invests vast sums in Trump's businesses, with an obvious quid pro quo; Trump will do anything to win the favor of those who enrich him personally, including Russian oligarchs aligned with Putin. Trump fancies himself as a dictator, who would love to do to opposition journalists (who he ominously calls the enemy of the people") exactly what MBS did to Khashoggi.
68
We all know why Trump doesn't care about Khashoggi's murder. Fake news. News is the enemy of the people. I have alternate facts for those who are interested, but the liberal, fake news media refuses to print them.
Let's face it, the Saudi's did what Trump would like to do, just kill his opponents in the news media instead of twitter them to death. Trump has no principles, only a child like persona and belief that "money is the only currency in the world that matters" to him.
32
So if you ‘do business’ with the US, please feel free to kill journalists and others you find to be a nuisance. What absolute depravity and inhumanity. I’m disgusted.
102
Just as he has shrugged off the needless killings of school age children and people of all ages who are in the crossfire or at the wrong place thanks to the ridiculous arming of America by the NRA and the wrong policies of many of our States, led invariably by Republican Governors or leadership.
69