Day 631: Trump’s reason for ignoring a journalist’s assassination? Money, of course.

On October 2, U.S.-based journalist and permanent resident Jamal Khashoggi walked into a Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey and was never seen alive again. Khashoggi was a dissident and frequent thorn in the side of the Saudi regime.

It was no secret that the Saudis wanted Khashoggi to stop writing and were willing to do whatever was necessary to get him to stop, including trying to entice him to enter Saudi Arabia. The directives allegedly came straight from the top too, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman calling the shots.

The “how” seems unclear, but the “what” and the “why” seem pretty obvious to most people, with the Turkish government informing the U.S. that it was in possession of recordings proving the journalist was assassinated in the consulate.

Even Donald Trump seemed to acknowledge the fact that Khashoggi was killed by the Saudis, but demurred at doing anything about it because of a pending arms deal between Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

He actually uttered, “we don’t like it, but…”

Trump is continuing to tell the world: it doesn’t matter what you do, what sins you commit, or the terror you cause; the U.S. will work with you if there’s financial reward in it.

Despite frequently proclaiming himself to be a master negotiator, Trump fails to understand basic things like the sheer weight of the U.S. tacitly accepting such heinous actions or alternatively denouncing them and instituting heavy penalties. The money doesn’t dry up because the U.S. is willing to take moral stands. The U.S. used to lead by example in moments like this, which led it to become the most powerful nation in the world.

But all Trump did is encourage the next Saudi Arabia to murder the next Jamal Khashoggi.

631 days in, 831 to go

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