On Tuesday afternoon, days after the C.I.A. concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Donald Trump issued an official presidential statement on the matter. In short, the president of the United States announced that he would not be punishing his buddy M.B.S. in any way whatsoever for the torture and dismemberment of a U.S. resident, or even admit that the prince had any knowledge of the “tragic event” (“maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”). Why? Because (1) “the world is a very dangerous place” and stuff like this happens all the time, and (2) Saudi Arabia is buying our weapons and selflessly allowing us to purchase its oil. (Also, they buy Trump apartments and stay in his hotels when no one else will.) But if Tuesday’s statement implied that this administration will happily overlook human-rights abuses if the president thinks he’s getting something out of it, an early-morning tweet on Wednesday basically just came out and said it:
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Yeah, Americans! See what happens when you let authoritarian nations get away with murdering people residing in the U.S. who were critical of their regimes? Everyone said it wasn’t worth ceding the moral high ground, but look what we got in return! How low do you think oil could go if we throw ‘em a couple more dissidents? $45? $30? We’ll give it our best shot!
Incidentally, energy experts say it’s not accurate to give the kingdom credit for the drop in crude prices, as Saudi Arabia has actually said OPEC and its allies should decrease production. Moreover, the fall probably has a little something to do with investor fears of slowing economic growth. Also, this could all come back to bite Trump in the ass:
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Of course, this isn’t the first time the former real-estate developer has failed to understand How All This Works. Over the summer, he angrily tweeted that OPEC should ramp up exports to bring down oil prices while at the same time demanding countries around the world stop buying crude oil from Iran.
Anyway, a big thank-you to Saudi Arabia. Happy Thanksgiving!
