A 1,000 Words or So on Human Rights
A snapshot from Saudi Arabia.
Here is the President of the United States having a grinning thumbs-up photo with a man who ordered the brutal murder of a Washington Post journalist.
A reminder via the NYT: Saudi Crown Prince Is Held Responsible for Khashoggi Killing in U.S. Report
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the assassination of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, according to an intelligence report that the Biden administration released on Friday that offered the world a reminder of the brutal killing.
An elite team of operatives helped carry out the killing, the report said. The team reported directly to Prince Mohammed, who cultivated a climate of fear that made it unlikely for aides to act without his consent, according to the report. It omitted the brutal details of Mr. Khashoggi’s death, including the dismemberment of his body with a bone saw after Saudi officials lured him to their consulate in Istanbul.
But the Biden administration took no direct action against Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of the kingdom, instead announcing travel and financial sanctions on other Saudis involved in the killing and on members of the elite unit of the Royal Guard who protect the crown prince. The administration concluded it could not risk a full rupture of its relationship with the kingdom, relied on by the United States to help contain Iran, to counter terrorist groups and to broker peaceful relations with Israel. Cutting off Saudi Arabia could also push its leaders toward China.
To be honest, I would have preferred that the Biden administration had been more forceful in this matter, but I understand the realpolitik of it all. But I also find it stomach-churning that a US president would want to gladhand and hang out with MBS.
But this is just another example of how Trump clearly prefers the company and approval of authoritarian rulers to that of our long-standing allies. Contrast his bonhomie with MBS with the way he treated Justin Trudeau or Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to pick but two examples.
And if one wishes to defend this, whether in writing or simply within the confines of one’s own mind, pause and think about the levels of rationalization being undertaken to reach that conclusion.
At least be willing to say that, yes, it is actually a good thing to berate Zelenskyy, to insult Trudeau, and then to embrace Mohamed bin Salman. Realize what you are supporting.
This is not just a simple game of R v. D.
Seriously, we should all stop and think now and again how Trump deals with democratic allies and how he deals with autocrats. He is constantly telling on himself as to what he values. This is not just the typical fact that the US has to be nicer to authoritarians than we might like to be the case.
Again, I understand the international relations rationale to maintain certain levels of cordiality with Saudi Arabia. That does not require what we saw from this visit (or, really, the visit itself at all).
I am old enough to remember Sarah Palin asserting that Obama “pals around with terrorists” (a reference to Bill Ayers). But here we literally have the President of the United States palling around with someone who we know ordered the brutal murder of a journalist and democracy advocate who worked for one of the US’s premier newspapers.
But what are human rights when you can be treated like a king by a king-in-waiting?
You may want to check out Israel, its human rights record, and how mainstream Democrats supports its actions. And in America itself–check out how Democrats are happy to cancel concerts and pull college courses which mention the existence of the Palestinian people.
This isn’t meant to be a gotcha. There’s nothing constructive left to say about Israel. The country is a racist genocidal state, and bipartisan American policy is to support/encourage that condition. As far as I’m concerned, human rights is a dead issue, unless a major revolt happens.
Trump is accused of learning little in his first term. But he does seem to have learned, perhaps from Putin, how to more effectively enrich himself. The modern path to autocracy is by now well marked out, and cozying up to other autocrats is part of the plan.
Also, and this is a small thing, tiny actually, and distracting from a deadly serious topic, but look at Trump’s hand in that picture compared to MBS.
Alas, they realize what they support. It simply doesn’t matter in their calculus.
Trump’s supporters have this nifty scale they use to weigh the pros and cons of supporting their guy. The device allows them to concede that all manner of things that Trump does are bad, even really bad, but never to the extent that will tip the balance to a point of withdrawing their support. It’s as if one side works like those magic bags of infinite holding. No matter what they will grant belongs on the bad side – palling around with brutes, screwing over Ukraine, scorning disabled military, [OMG the list goes on and on] – the pile will never outweigh owning the libs.
Remember that the rumor at the time was that Trump, via Kushner, “handed” Khashoggi to MBS. Kushner, soon after leaving the White House, received a $2B investment from MBS.
Social Media is awash with clips of Trump, in 2016, denigrating the Clinton Foundation for taking money from foreign donors saying that it disqualified Clinton from the Presidency. In 2025 it’s a no-brainer for Trump to accept such offers.
Like Rubio changing his tune from Trump is a “con artist,” to becoming his biggest ass-kisser, the pretzel-gymnastics is one thing. The real problem is the short memory of the American public. If these people were held to their word we wouldn’t be here.
@Modulo Myself: It may not be a gotcha, but it does come across as whatabouting.
@Modulo Myself: I will say this: the US has never been great on human rights. I say this as a Latin Americanist. We supported brutal authoritarians (Argentina, Brazil, Chile to name but three), we helped foment coups, we trained officers who would go on to commit atrocities.
My eyes are wide open on this, to include the increasingly complicated, messy, and distressing relationships with Israel.
But saying “As far as I’m concerned, human rights is a dead issue, unless a major revolt happens” is to declare utter defeat.
And if you can’t see the difference between Biden and Trump (or, really, Trump and any other US president) then I think you are not looking hard enough.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I don’t think I have an obligation to any president, living or dead, to find the differences between their human rights records and Trump’s. I don’t owe anything to these people, and I have no problem being judgmental when it comes to power.
If Bush wants to take an honest look at the invasion/occupation of Iraq and his torture programs and explain the difference, or if Biden or his advisors wishes to do the same with their embrace of Israeli genocide, they should do it. But they haven’t and they won’t, which is, essentially, why speakers at graduations end up being threatened for mentioning Palestine. The verdict falls on those way down the line who care, rather than the top.
@Modulo Myself: I feel as if you are missing my point, but YMMV.
@Steven L. Taylor: My perception was that Modulo’s point in that there’s no sense to be had in evaluating any other human rights abuse situation as less worse than Trump. But, indeed, mileage will vary on that point.
@just nutha: I understand that past presidents have blood on their hands. And maybe by some metrics worse.
But I stand by my perception that he is missing my point, whether on purpose or not, I do not know.
At a bare minimum, the level of indifference by this administration is staggering.
As Matt noted in the comments of another post about Musk and his DOGE efforts
We are willing to just let people starve when we had in place cheap ways to keep them alive.
This is evil.