"It's not a citizen": Trump posts a flexible line on Jamal Khashoggi – even if the evidence becomes more and more overwhelming

Update: Later on Thursday, Trump repeatedly reiterated that Khashoggi was not a US citizen. "It's in Turkey, and it's not a citizen, as I understand it, but such a thing should not happen." Trump added later: "Again, this has happened in Turkey, and to the best of our knowledge, Khashoggi is not an American citizen, is that correct?" An assistant said that Khashoggi was a permanent resident of the United States.

Combined with Trump's comments downplaying the prospect of sanctioning Saudi Arabia and limiting arms sales, it seems that Trump is not inclined to take a hard line here even though the evidence becomes more overwhelming. Below, we explore why this was predictable (and expected).

For the second time in his presidency, President Trump is attacking the apparent targeting of a dissident in the hands of a despotic regime with which Trump has tried to gain favor. And even more than the alleged Russian poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Britain, the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi poses impossible and ripe choices for a mistake.

Until now, Trump has been very cautious – and understandably – of Khashoggi, a longtime journalist and contributor to the Washington Post who disappeared while on his way to the US consulate. Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We just do not know enough, and everything is extremely delicate.

However, evidence increasingly suggests a Saudi plot to kill him or kill him. As the Shane Harris report from The Post reported Wednesday night, it also increasingly points to the Saudi government's summit, most notably Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman:

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has ordered an operation to return Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and to detain him, according to intelligence sources. Saudi intelligence services.

Intelligence, described by US officials who know him well, is another piece of evidence implicating the Saudi regime in the disappearance of Khashoggi last week after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials said that a Saudi security team was waiting for the journalist and killed him.

The Crown Prince, a young leader known as the "MBS", has worked hard to forge an image of reformer and modernizer and be loved by the West. Part of that effort included a long coast-to-coast visit to the United States this year, where he was warmly welcomed. If the intercepted conversations described by Harris provided stronger evidence that he was at the origin of Khashoggi 's disappearance or death, he would be acting out of an international incident and would certainly put him at risk. Trial the US alliance with Saudi Arabia.

And the details are almost a perfect storm.

Khashoggi, of course, is a journalist and Trump's story with reporters is overshadowed by occasional allusions to violence and regular allusions to "false information" as being "the enemy of the American people" . In Khashoggi, Trump is responsible for looking for answers. about a contributor to a newspaper, he regularly falls into the latter categories.

Khashoggi was not only a critic of the Saudi government; He was also a Trump critic who questioned the president's plans for the Middle East. On November 15, 2016, shortly after Trump's election, Khashoggi described the idea of ​​"wishful thinking" that Trump would bring about regional reconciliation in the Middle East. Two days later, he suggested that the policies of Trump's candidate were contradictory and that no one would expect him to govern more healthfully than he had campaigned.

This seemed to attract an official reproach from the Saudis. Two days after these last comments, on November 19, the Saudi press agency quoted a source from the Foreign Ministry distancing itself from Khashoggi: "The source claimed that the author Jamal Khashoggi does not represent the government Saudi or his government. positions at all levels and that his opinions represent only his personal opinions and not that of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Shortly after, Khashoggi's long column in the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Hayat ceased publication.

The situation also gives Trump the choice between another strategic partner who is not respectful of human rights. And Trump's approach in these cases has almost always been equivocation, if not indifference.

He hailed Chinese President Xi Jinping's and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's power consolidations. He suggested that the assassination of critics by Russian President Vladimir Putin was not very different from what the United States does. He congratulated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for his "incredible work" in his war on drugs, which has resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killings. And he ignored the repression of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un by calling it "tough to cook."

Trump's stance on despots and authoritarians has generally been not to judge their conduct, but rather to suggest that it was a mere distraction on his part. And this is also the case of Saudi Arabia, which Trump and his White House have treated warmly as a partner against Iran and for trade.

Even Thursday morning – after Harris' report on the MBS – it was clear that Trump would have a hard time taking a hard line against the Saudis. During an appearance in "Fox & Friends," he was questioned about the significance of Khashoggi's assassination in Saudi Arabia for relations with the United States. Trump said the relationship was "excellent" before embarking on a discussion of military spending. As The Post's James Hohmann notes, Trump also resisted the idea of ​​limiting Saudi arms sales. And Thursday afternoon, Trump said he did not like the idea of ​​punishing the Saudis.

And then there is the simple problem that intelligence is not always convincing for Trump, especially when he does not want to believe it. Trump has questioned and undermined the US intelligence community's findings on the 2016 interference in the Russian elections for nearly two years. Even in the case of Skripal, Trump would have been reluctant to follow the rest of the West, as Greg Miller of The Post reported in his new book.

Saudi Arabia might not reach the level of a Russia regarding what Trump will tolerate. Trump sometimes spoke harshly with them. But his comments so far suggest that he is in no hurry to be firm. And his personal history and the details of this case raise serious questions as to whether he would do it someday or not.