Today, President Trump put out an official statement that the King of Saudi Arabia and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) have both denied approving or being involved in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the U.S, will not sanction them or the country generally for the depraved act (although the Magninsky Act, in fact, require such sanctions and they may eventually apply). Think what you will of the public position and statement by Trump, perhaps we should think about this on a deeper level. Instead of Trump being "loyal" or beholden to the Saudis, how about the idea that Trump got something valuable in return for not publicly concluding that MBS ordered the killing of Khashoggi? Perhaps the Saudis will now need to tow the U.S. line on Middle East matters, including the war in Yemen and a potential Middle East peace plan between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It's even possible that Trump authorized the release of the CIA report concluding that MBS had authorized the Khashoggi killing so that he could then extort MBS to support his Middle East plans in return for not publicly siding with the CIA. None of this type of thing is as simple as it seems on the surface.
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