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Robert Costa
National political reporter covering the White House, Congress and Campaigns
While horrendous details of the alleged murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents were spreading into the public domain this week, calls were made to call for immediate retaliation for the apparent atrocity of human rights.
But President Trump remained stubborn on the bottom line.
According to government officials and presidential advisers, Trump often went to him for reasons of protecting US-Saudi relations in days of private appeals and oval office settlements.
Trump pointed to Saudi Arabia's massive investment in US arms and fears that she could not buy weapons from China or Russia. He fears that the desert kingdom, rich in oil, will no longer supply oil to the United States. He warned against the loss of a key partner against the Iranian influence in the Middle East. He argued that even if the United States tried to isolate the Saudis, the kingdom would be too rich to be truly isolated.
And he pointed out that although Khashoggi lived in Virginia and writes for the Washington Post, the dissident journalist is a Saudi citizen, implying that the disappearance is not necessarily the problem of the United States.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned to Washington Wednesday after hearing Saudi denials in Riyadh and Turkish accusations in Ankara that Khashoggi was allegedly killed by Saudi agents. Trump's top diplomat received a direct briefing from the Turkish authorities, but did not listen to the audio recording which, according to Turkish officials, would make horrible account of the killing of Khashoggi and prove that he was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met on Tuesday in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. (Leah Mills / AP)
Pompeo also failed to explain to reporters who accompanied him how the Trump administration would approach conflicting accounts, but he suggested that any possible US response would weigh on his "important relationship" with the US. Saudi Arabia.
[[[[Pompeo hears Turkey's accusations against Saudi Arabia in Khashoggi case]
Trump said his administration had requested an audio recording "if it exists," expressing doubts about the evidence. US intelligence officials, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said that they had no reason to doubt that Turkey has an audio recording that shows what that the officials claim. But the lack of analysis by US analysts prevents the administration from proposing an independent assessment of responsibility for the killing of Khashoggi, officials said.
At the same time, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Said that the administration had "repressed" the sharing of information about the case Khashoggi. He added that a briefing on intelligence services scheduled for Tuesday had been canceled and that he would not have been given additional information for the time being, what he said. described as "disappointing".
"I can only assume that the information probably does not paint a pretty good picture as far as Saudi Arabia is concerned," Corker said. On the basis of the information he had previously reviewed, he added that "not everything concerns Saudi Arabia, but also the MBS", referring to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "It could not have happened without his approval."
Consular security officers are waiting for the arrival of forensic investigators in front of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday. (Kostas Tsironis / Bloomberg)
For a president known to act on his impulses, The Khashoggi episode resulted in a two week delay and deterrence cycle.
Trump has repeatedly insisted on an unhurried response and has largely followed the cautious advice of Pompeo, one of the president's most trusted confidants. A senior White House official said that Trump's sending Pompeo to Saudi Arabia showed how seriously he took the issue.
National Security Advisor John Bolton and to a lesser extent Senior Advisor Jared Kushner also helped shape Trump's Saudi strategy. Kushner, who has close relations with Mohammed, has underlined internally the importance of Saudi Arabia for the prospects for peace in the Middle East, officials said.
[[[[Two princes: Kushner must now count for Trump's bet on the heir to the Saudi throne]
Hesitations and friendly relations with the Saudis underscored Trump's vision of US power: a transactional approach that prioritizes geopolitics and economic interests over human rights and democracy.
Explaining the administration's position, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, said, "People would like us to do something because it is horrible. But it is not enough to make the Iranians happy and screw up the global economy. Who will put that high enough on the list of priorities to suddenly overwhelm everything that happens? "
After a phone conversation with King Salman on Monday, Trump first spoke of the idea that "dishonest killers" could somehow have entered the Saudi Arabian consulate and assassinated Khashoggi. And after Pompeo was photographed Tuesday morning smiling with Saudi monarchs in one of Riyadh's adorned palaces, Trump went so far as to qualify royalty members of a world-wide attempt to make them guilty. .
"Here we are again with, you know, you are guilty until you prove your innocence. I do not like that, "Trump told the Associated Press on Tuesday, citing a comparison of allegations of sexual assault against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Marc Short, who headed legislative affairs at Trump's White House until his departure this summer, said: "Saudi Arabia has created a real problem."
"Our conviction should be unequivocal," said Short. But he said the relationship is complicated, as was the case with previous administrations. "I think he's more concerned about the strategic alliance than anything else," he said about Trump.
A group of lawmakers, including some prominent Republicans, have been arguing this week for more forceful action.
"It's not because we work with a country that the United States can only shrug and say, well, nothing happened here," said Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla .) Tuesday at CNN. He added: "Human rights are worth explaining, and to attract someone to a consulate where he is murdered, dismembered and eliminated is a big problem."
The Senate could impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia even if Trump opposes it, as it did last year by voting sanctions against Russia with a 98-2 vote against opponents.
"Yes [the Saudis] try to block what has happened or to provide excuses that are simply not credible, it is not up to the president to decide, said Leon Panetta, defense secretary and director of the CIA under the Obama administration . "I think Congress will take a step forward and take action that will actually hurt the relationship."
Trump has long considered his relationship with the Saudis through the prism of money. He regularly brags about Saudi Arabia's commitment to buy $ 110 billion worth of US weapons, though this figure is misleading because it includes the agreements reached by the Obama administration as well as sales that might not come to fruition before many years, if ever.
During a recent fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in Washington for the Protect the House committee, Trump complimented Riyadh for its beauty and claimed that the Saudis had spent $ 50 million cleaning it upon his arrival. He also complained that the United States is spending to support Saudi Arabia, according to one participant.
"Ah, these guys," recalls the participant, explaining that Trump had sparked audience laughter.
In August, Trump told a group of executive directors at a dinner on his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, that he had told Saudi officials – he called them his "friends." of the Gulf "- that the United States was protecting them and should not have to pay such high prices for oil, according to a person present. Trump chose oil baron Harold Hamm for his opinion, and Hamm said the oil supply had to grow for prices to fall, the attendee said.
Dan Eberhart, an oil sector leader and a major GOP donor who did not attend any of the rallies, said that although some lawmakers are demanding Saudi Arabia's administrative sanction, Trump is determined to keep oil prices low and therefore hesitant to act.
"The United States is counting on Saudi Arabia to offset the decline in Iranian production and cover the situation in Venezuela," said Eberhart. "The Saudis may not be in the mood for the United States to cancel the sale of arms or to impose sanctions."
Trump's personal financial ties with Saudi Arabia are also under scrutiny. The President falsely claimed in a tweet tuesday that he has "no financial interest in Saudi Arabia", while his real estate sector has sold properties to wealthy Saudi Arabians and that Saudi visitors have stayed in his hotels while he was president .
[‘I like them very much:’ Trump has long-standing business ties with Saudis, who have boosted his hotels since he took office]
A group of Democratic senators on Wednesday called for a full disclosure of Trump-Saudi deals and the freezing of all business during the Khashoggi investigation.
While pressure is mounting to punish Riyadh, the president is showing unusual caution. And for Trump, Saudi arms purchases are a priority.
"The president is trying to introduce a little calm in this case, to wait to see who is directly responsible," said Rudolph W. Giuliani, his private lawyer. "Although it makes it clear that he does not approve of what happened, it's complicated, because it's not a pure enemy with whom he As if Iran were doing it … it sees in these contracts with Saudi Arabia not only money, but also jobs. "
Giuliani said Trump was not naive to Muhammad's authoritarian attempts to consolidate power in his kingdom, recalling that the president had personally worried about the methods used by the Crown Prince after jailing several critics and members of the royal family last November.
"I know that flowering is with the Crown Prince," said Giuliani. "The president at the time began to have a more complex vision of him."
By evoking the notion of "dishonest killers" and defending Saudi monarchs this week, Trump broke with his key US allies who joined forces to voice their concerns about the missing journalist and called on the Saudi regime to provide clear answers.
"European leaders have made clear their joint call for journalistic freedom, a credible investigation and accountability for wrongdoing," said Amanda Sloat, a specialist in the field of journalistic freedom. Europe at the Brookings Institution. "In contrast, the US president has chosen to paralyze Saudi denials and give an unfounded and improbable explanation.
Trump's openness to accepting a theory that kills thugs threatens to reinforce the suspicions that the president would accept distant conspiracy theories if they were convenient.
"Europeans see President Trump as willing to shamelessly flout the truth to achieve his goals without any sense of shame or fear of being discovered," said Jeremy Shapiro, director of research at the European Council of External Relations.
Gingrich said Trump was trying to find a balance.
"Trump is good enough to read this to know that you can not have people roaming the planet by cutting people in place," he said. "But the United States will almost certainly not succeed in self-flagellation, as some in Congress want, because it is not in our interest."
Shane Harris, John Hudson and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.
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