Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, said Donald Trump of the Saudi crown prince’s presumed order to kill Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, it is what it is, the US president concluded. Saudi Arabia buys weapons, invests in America and is a bulwark against Iran — and that’s all he needs to know.
The nonchalance with which the US president has handled a political crime that has outraged the world (and that his own intelligence services say was ordered by Mohammed bin Salman) sums up his crude mercantilist approach to foreign policy. That it demeans America’s leadership and encourages the worst behaviour of autocrats is irrelevant detail.
But why is anyone surprised? Mr Trump has never made a secret of his admiration for autocrats, even those with blood on their hands. And the richer they are, the closer he embraces them.