Pushing It In Our Face

Trump wants us to applaud his corruption

Murder? Bone saws? Who cares? Trump meets his BFF, MBS. © Win McNamee/Getty Images

We’ll get back to the “Palace in the Sky” bribe in a moment, but we have to do this first.

**

It’s as if Jamal Khashoggi never existed.

On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post and an outspoken critic of the Saudi government walked into Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul and was murdered by a death squad. His killers used a bone saw to dismember his body.

The Saudis later blamed a “rogue” operation, but US intelligence agencies concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ]MSB] had approved the murder.

The report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, released Friday, cited the crown prince’s control of decision-making in Saudi Arabia as well as the involvement of a key advisor and members of the prince’s protective detail in the operation that killed Khashoggi, a critic of the royal family.

A UN report also pointed the finger at Mohammed bin Salman.¹ For a moment, then, MSB was an international pariah.² But you would never have known that if you watched the scene in Riyadh yesterday.

Surrounded by the world’s business titans, Donald Trump lavished praise on MSB.

Four years after the U.S. intelligence community report was released that concluded that the crown prince approved the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump lauded the crown prince for his leadership and friendship.

"He's your greatest representative, greatest representative. And if I didn't like him, I'd get out of here so fast. You know that, don't you? He knows me well. I do -- I like him a lot. I like him too much. That's why we give so much, you know? Too much. I like you too much," Trump said while speaking in Saudi Arabia. …

Throughout his remarks, the crown prince smiled on, applauding and laughing at Trump's jokes, with billionaire Elon Musk seated prominently over his shoulder.

The president also announced he will be ordering the end of sanctions against Syria and suggested he did so at Saudi Arabia's request, as well as Turkey's.

"Oh, what I do for the crown prince," Trump quipped.

But Trump did not simply ignore MSB’s role in Khashoggi’s murder; he offered a justification for his transactional amorality: “In recent years,” Trump said, “far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins …”

But, Trump said, he was not “afflicted” with any notions that the “sins” — including the cold-blooded murder of an American journalist — should get in the way of his deal-making. “I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgement,” Trump explained, “my job [is] to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity, and peace.”

Corruption is smart, he was saying. Morality is for suckers and losers. Khashoggi simply doesn’t matter.

Happy Wednesday.

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As you know: You may disagree with me from time to time (and I expect you will, because I’m not promising you a safe space here). But I can promise you straight, sober, sane (and snarky) commentary — and a daily reminder that you are not the crazy ones.

In Our Faces

“My hair has been on fire about the meme coin from day one. That is a level of corruption that is just absolutely stunning. It was already the most corrupt thing a president has ever done in the history of the United States.” — Senator Chris Murphy

This is the point: Trump’s corruption is no longer hidden or denied. It’s right out in the open. Flaunted and celebrated by the man who took an oath to uphold the law.

Make sure you read these extraordinary paragraphs from Monday’s NYT {Gift link]

During President Trump’s first term, the idea that special interests and governments were buying meals and booking rooms at his hotels set off legal and ethical alarms about the potential for corruption.

Mr. Trump’s second term is making those concerns look trivial.

The administration’s plan to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family is only the latest example of an increasingly no-holds-barred atmosphere in Washington under Trump 2.0. Not only would the famously transactional chief executive be able to use the plane while in office, but he is also expected to transfer it to his presidential foundation once he leaves the White House.

The second Trump administration is showing striking disdain for onetime norms of propriety and for traditional legal and political guardrails around public service. It is clearly emboldened, in part because of the Supreme Court’s ruling last year that granted immunity to presidents for their official actions and because of the political reality that Mr. Trump’s hold on the Republican Party means he need not fear impeachment.

Absurdity sometimes yields insight

As he defended the lavish Qatari gift of a $400 million airplane, Trump offered a bizarre analogy. Accepting the bribe, he suggested, was no different than taking a gimme putt. And he made up a story about golf legend Sam Snead to make his point:

Old Sam Snead “had a motto,” Mr. Trump continued. “When they give you a putt, you say, ‘Thank you very much.’ You pick up your ball, and you walk to the next hole. A lot of people are stupid. They say, ‘No, no, I insist on putting it.’ Then they putt it, they miss it, and their partner gets angry at them.”

“Remember that,” Mr. Trump said. Some of his aides nodded appreciatively at this most Trumpian pearl of wisdom that was being dispensed. “Sam Snead,” he repeated. “When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, ‘Thank you very much.’”

{Nota bene: There’s no record that Snead ever said any such thing.] ³

But the moment — and the context — is revealing. Trump, who has a long history of cheating at golf, is now offering Americans his upside down moral code: He no longer denies taking bribes or cheating — he’s justifying it as the smart, strong, bold thing to do.

I talked about this yesterday on Nicolle Wallace’s show:

"This is not about Donald Trump. It's about us, because it is so flagrant," Sykes said. "What Donald Trump is saying is, yeah, this is corrupt. I am accepting bribes. And it is smart to accept bribes. The corruption is the smart play. And so now it is up to the American people. What are you willing to accept?"

The danger is that Americans will become numb to all of this and “and decide that he's right that "all this stuff about sportsmanship and about etiquette and about playing by the rules is for ‘suckers’ and "losers.’”

Trump no longer bothers to deny or cover-up the blatant corruption. He is embracing it, defending it, pushing it in our faces.

"It's not just the corruption. It's now the defense of the corruption," he said. "Because it is right in front of us, and he's pushing it into our face in the most aggressive manner possible.

“So, America, over to you. Are you buying what he's selling? Because he's selling it awfully aggressively."

Nota Bene

Your daily absolute-must-read: “The End of the Rule of law in America” by J. Michael Luttig [GIFT LINK]

The 47th president of the United States may wish he were a king. But in America, the law is king, not the president.

Donald Trump may wish he could dictate his unconscionable global tariffs; dispense with due process and deport whomever he pleases, citizen and not; and vanish away huge swaths of the federal government without check or rebuke. He may wish he did not have to contend with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, the free press, or the Constitution’s birthright-citizenship guarantee. He may wish he could ignore the Constitution’s elections clauses and run America’s elections from the White House. And he may wish he could intimidate the nation’s lawyers and law firms from challenging his abuse of power and commandeer them to do his personal bidding.

But it is these constitutional obstacles to a tyrannical president that have made America the greatest nation on Earth for almost 250 years, not the fallen America that Trump delusionally thinks he’s going to make great again tomorrow.

After these first three tyrannical, lawless months of this presidency, surely Americans can understand now that Donald Trump is going to continue to decimate America for the next three-plus years. He will continue his assault on America, its democracy, and rule of law until the American people finally rise up and say, “No more.”

From across the ages, Frederick Douglass is crying out that we Americans never forget: “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

ICYMI: What Fresh Hell?

I sat down with my friend, Matt Lewis, yesterday for a wide-ranging chat about (waves hands) all this. We covered everything from the Democrats’ ongoing group therapy session to the Qatari jet scandal that somehow made corruption feel… quaint. I cross-posted his newsletter about our conversation yestterday, but just in case you missed it, you can listen/watch here:

Matt’s final thoughts on our chat:

When it comes to my chat with Charlie, the above barely scratches the surface. Charlie and I got into a lot of interesting, if esoteric, topics, including the Gen-X ethos of not “selling out.”

Charlie shared a personal story about a defining moment in his career when he refused to kill an article at the behest of a magazine owner, even though it cost him his job. “I thought, what would my father think if I sold out?” he said.

That choice, though painful, shaped his sense of self. We both wondered: do today’s leaders even think about their legacy or the choices they’ll reflect on at life’s end?

Apparently not.

Still, talking to Charlie reminded me why I still do this — for the occasional flicker of honesty in a hall of mirrors.

In a time of performative outrage, cultish loyalty, and intellectual rot, someone has to keep asking: What the hell are we doing?

This isn’t just about Trump or Biden or Harris or whoever’s up next. It’s about not losing your soul in the process.

Hold the line. Even if the line’s frayed, and everyone around you is cashing out.

Wednesday dog

Eli takes some time to smell the flowers (and check on whether any other dogs had visited).

1. Via the BBC:

A report released in June 2019 by Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur, concluded that Khashoggi's death "constituted an extrajudicial killing for which the state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible".

She also found there was "credible evidence" to warrant an investigation into Prince Mohammed and other high-level Saudi officials, and said the prince should be subject to the targeted sanctions already imposed by some UN member states against other named individuals allegedly involved in the killing.

2. Unfortunately the climb-down had a bipartisan flavor. After saying that MSB should be a “pariah,” Joe Biden infamously gave the Saudi butcher a “fist-bump” when he visited him in 2022.

3. Via the Toronto Sun:

“In his 1962 book The Education of the Golfer, Snead wrote the following: “Some of the things I didn’t have to be taught as a rookie travelling pro were to keep close count of my nickels and dimes, stay away from whiskey and never concede a putt,” he wrote.