The Awful Trump Statement on Saudi Arabia

Digby:

Trump just told the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia that he has a free hand to murder anyone he chooses. Because "America First!" means, all Americans care about is money and if other governments want to go around the world assassinating people we don't give a damn as long as they pay tribute to Donald Trump.

Apparently, he thinks that makes us "safe." I'm sure it's going to work out just swimmingly for all of us to be the most loathed and despised, immoral, super-power in world history.

Here's the embarrassing, immoral, idiotically exclamation point-laden statement:

Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Standing with Saudi Arabia

America First!

The world is a very dangerous place!

The country of Iran, as an example, is responsible for a bloody proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen, trying to destabilize Iraq’s fragile attempt at democracy, supporting the terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon, propping up dictator Bashar Assad in Syria (who has killed millions of his own citizens), and much more. Likewise, the Iranians have killed many Americans and other innocent people throughout the Middle East. Iran states openly, and with great force, “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” Iran is considered “the world’s leading sponsor of terror.”

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia would gladly withdraw from Yemen if the Iranians would agree to leave. They would immediately provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance. Additionally, Saudi Arabia has agreed to spend billions of dollars in leading the fight against Radical Islamic Terrorism.

After my heavily negotiated trip to Saudi Arabia last year, the Kingdom agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. This is a record amount of money. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth for the United States. Of the $450 billion, $110 billion will be spent on the purchase of military equipment from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and many other great U.S. defense contractors. If we foolishly cancel these contracts, Russia and China would be the enormous beneficiaries — and very happy to acquire all of this newfound business. It would be a wonderful gift to them directly from the United States!

The crime against Jamal Khashoggi was a terrible one, and one that our country does not condone. Indeed, we have taken strong action against those already known to have participated in the murder. After great independent research, we now know many details of this horrible crime. We have already sanctioned 17 Saudis known to have been involved in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, and the disposal of his body.

Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an “enemy of the state” and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but my decision is in no way based on that — this is an unacceptable and horrible crime. King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!

That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran. The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region. It is our paramount goal to fully eliminate the threat of terrorism throughout the world!

I understand there are members of Congress who, for political or other reasons, would like to go in a different direction — and they are free to do so. I will consider whatever ideas are presented to me, but only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America. After the United States, Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producing nation in the world. They have worked closely with us and have been very responsive to my requests to keeping oil prices at reasonable levels — so important for the world. As President of the United States I intend to ensure that, in a very dangerous world, America is pursuing its national interests and vigorously contesting countries that wish to do us harm. Very simply it is called America First!

Oh, by the way, speaking of governments going around the world assassinating their enemies whenever and wherever they choose, this is happening too:

An international firestorm erupted over the possibility that a Russian official could become the new president of global police agency Interpol, as Moscow denounced a demand by U.S. senators that the Trump administration block the candidacy of a Kremlin-backed nominee.

Interpol confirmed Tuesday that Maj. Gen. Alexander Prokopchuk a veteran Russian Interior Ministry official, had been nominated for president, amid allegations that Moscow has used the international police agency to go after political foes.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Florida Republican Marco Rubio and Chris Coons (D. Del.), issued a joint statement Monday, accusing Russia of routinely abusing Interpol “for the purpose of settling scores and harassing political opponents, dissidents and journalists.”

Electing Mr. Prokopchuk as president, would be “akin to putting a fox in charge of a henhouse,” the senators said in the statement.

The Kremlin was quick to fire back, charging that the senators’ intervention was tantamount to “a kind of election interference, the election held by this international organization,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

Interpol’s former president, Meng Hongwei, resigned in October after Chinese authorities arrested him on charges of alleged corruption.

Interpol’s general assembly will vote for the new president in Dubai on Wednesday. Kim Jong-yang, currently acting president, is also a nominee for the presidential post.

Mr. Prokopchuk has headed Interpol’s National Central Bureau for Russia since 2011 and has also served as the agency’s vice president since 2016.

Kremlin opponents, human rights activists and several Western officials have accused Moscow of exploiting Interpol’s international arrest-warrant system, called red notices, to prevent its opponents from traveling, freeze their bank accounts and try to force their extradition to Russia. 

Pompeo said this morning that the US is endorsing Kim, but you know, whatevs. And anyway, can we really ever know if President Putin is routinely having his critics murdered at home and all over the world? I think not. So he might as well have the apparatus of the international police agency at his fingertips.

This whole thing is sick. Pompeo repeated Trump's claim that it's a "mean, nasty world" out there (it's full of dangerous foreigners!) so there's no point in having any kind of standards, laws, norms or anything else to try to keep the whole thing from blowing up.

Let's just get as much money as we can before the world explodes.  We might all die but we'll be rich and what more can you hope for, amirite?