Saudi Crown Prince gives Donald Trump his marching orders
In the days since the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia apparently had his henchmen murder Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi, things haven’t been going well for him. He’s suddenly lost billions of dollars in corporate partnerships. Key people are bailing on his upcoming Davos summit. But even in his rapidly weakening position, the Crown Prince seems confident that he still controls one thing: the Oval Office.
Donald Trump is a puppet of Saudi Arabia in the same way that he’s a puppet of Russia, and for similar reasons. It’s why Trump has been hemming and hawing about Khashoggi this week. Finally, under mounting pressure, Trump said that there will be “severe punishment” if it turns out the government of Saudi Arabia was responsible for Khashoggi’s murder. This has been widely seen as a hollow threat, and sure enough, it’s already being blown off.
The Crown Prince has responded by saying “The kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats,” according to the Associated Press. In other words, Trump isn’t going to do anything about this. He can’t. Trump is deeply in debt, and he’s personally financially dependent on the Crown Prince, and he’s not in a position to defy his financial masters. We saw Trump hurt himself politically by cowering to Putin earlier this year, and now we’re going to see Trump do the same by cowering to the Crown Prince.
