Trump shrugs off Khashoggi’s killing. How very presidential of him
November 19, 2025 07:11 PM IST
First published on: Nov 19, 2025 at 07:10 PM IST
There was never any doubt about the VIP treatment that US President Donald Trump would lavish on the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman (MbS), during the latter’s White House trip this week. From the pomp and circumstance of the welcome, complete with flag-bearing horses and an aerial display by a squadron of F-15 and F-35 fighter jets, to the sumptuous, power-packed dinner where he announced the kingdom’s elevation to the status of non-NATO ally, Trump pulled out all the stops for the man promising him a $1 trillion deal.
So far, so predictable, if not for the extraordinary scene that unfolded in the freshly-gilded Oval Office when the White House corps met the guest and his doting host. A question to MbS about the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi (traced back to the prince himself by US intelligence), led a bristling Trump to hector the reporter, Mary Bruce of ABC News, over her “horrible, insubordinate” attitude. He then not only absolved MbS of any responsibility, but also dismissed Khashoggi as “extremely controversial” and shrugged off his murder by saying “things happen”.
This latest display of callous, bullying behaviour by a president who has made ruthlessness as much a hallmark of his administration as vulgarity, has been followed, not surprisingly, by a huge outcry. MbS’s own response to the reporter’s question — “We’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that…it’s painful and a huge mistake” — fell far short of honesty and grace. But, as the Washington Post pointed out in an editorial, it was somehow better than the President’s indifference to the facts of the case and the dignity of his office — not to mention the demands of basic empathy.
And yet, history shows that in his bullying attitude towards those less powerful than him and his insensitivity to human rights, Trump is not all that different from US presidents of the past. At least, not in their actions beyond American shores.
Consider, for example, Dwight Eisenhower, whose regime helped orchestrate the overthrow of Mohammed Mosaddegh’s government in Iran in order to secure US oil interests, which ultimately led to the emergence of a repressive theocratic state, or Bill Clinton who tightened sanctions on Iraq, leading to food shortages and a deepening humanitarian crisis, or George W Bush, whose catastrophic “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan led to thousands of deaths and turmoil that the larger region is still to recover from.
Trump isn’t even the first president to actively woo MbS after Khashoggi’s murder. Joe Biden, who had condemned Saudi involvement in the killing and promised to act against their human rights record when he was on the campaign trail, changed tack once he was elected to office — a viral picture of his fist-bump with MbS served as the capstone to his heavily criticised 2022 trip to the kingdom to convince the Saudis to pump more oil and help bring down fuel prices.
Trump may loudly broadcast his disdain, but many of his predecessors cloaked their actions in the language of freedom, democracy and “American leadership” — while overseeing interventions that caused immense human suffering. Their legacies, even when their toxic after-effects are felt by successive generations, are protected partly by the softening effect of nostalgia and partly by the outrageousness of Trump himself. None of them, after all, has addressed a journalist as “piggy” — as Trump recently did when asked about his reluctance to let the Epstein files be released — shared racist memes about political opponents, targeted American citizens of colour and called for jailing anyone who disagreed with them. What separates the bully abroad and the bully at home, ultimately, just a thin veneer of statesmanship.
pooja.pillai@expressindia.com
