Trump Hosts Saudi Prince, US Ethics Committees Take Day Off
The Hill highlighted “3 things to watch” as Trump hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, focusing on Saudi investments, regional stability, and combatting extremism. Conveniently, they sidestepped the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen (fueled by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes using US-supplied weapons), and the kingdom's history of
sponsoring extremist ideologies. (Perhaps 'combatting extremism' was just a clever euphemism for 'more weapons sales'.) While The Hill pointed to billions in potential Saudi investments in the US, they never quite connected those dots to past US arms deals or the kingdom's systematic repression of dissent. This isn't just a meeting; it's a transactional relationship where US strategic interests
(read: oil, weapons sales, and a shared animosity towards Iran) consistently override any concern for human rights or democratic values. One might wonder, how many press releases does it take to whitewash a bone saw?