FOREIGN POLICY/MEDIA/SAUDI ARABIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “By letting Saudi Arabia get away with the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the President sent a message of startling clarity about how the United States will conduct its business in the world. Refusing to break with Saudi strongman Mohammed bin Salman over the killing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Trump effectively told global despots that if they side with him, Washington will turn a blind eye to actions that infringe traditional US values. But more than that, by stressing the ‘billions’ of dollars in Saudi investment in the US, Trump made clear that Washington has a price, that principles that generations of Americans have cherished, are for sale…He kept up his praise on Wednesday, thanking the Saudis in a tweet for low oil prices, even though the tumble in crude oil owes largely to market fears about a new supply glut and weakening demand. The President’s decision Tuesday [11-20-18] to answer the long-running question of how he will respond to the murder of the Washington Post columnist revealed other pillars of the Trump doctrine in one of the most colloquial and oddly stylistic statements on US foreign policy ever written. It showed a President willing to ignore and prejudge US intelligence assessments that conflict with his political goals.”
–Stephen Collinson, “Trump’s Saudi support highlights brutality of ‘America First’ doctrine,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, November 20, 2018 8:09 am